Our universities should aim:

To be amongst the 1000 best in the world

Dinesh de Alwis

University lecturers' support and contribution will help uplift the university system. It will also facilitate to place Sri Lankan universities in a world class standard, said Higher Education Minister S B Dissanayake addressing a workshop at Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM) yesterday.

According to the world university ranking,Sri Lankan universities are far behind. "We are not even among the best 3,000 universities. Our target is to be within the best 1,000." "To be a world class university,Sri Lankan universities should follow several guidelines.

There should be a research focus university, they should follow international standards and graduates can work anywhere in the world," he said.

Some universities are facing a pathetic situation because of JVP backed students. The Ministry has identified that some lecturers are supporting ragging incidents and some are silent. University academics should help us to change this scenario," the Minster said.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa is clear in his vision to make Sri Lanka the Miracle of Asia. The Ministry has to be the knowledge hub of Asia to achieve that target. Knowledge is very important," Dissanayake said.

All other hubs depend on the success of knowledge hub. Hence developing human capital is a responsibility of national universities and it is in the lecturers hand," he said.

Otago University Director Dr Graham Mcgregor is conducting the workshop about writing research proposal. It will be held on October 20 and 21 from 9 am.

PIM Director Dr Uditha Liyanage,Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr.Sunil Jayantha and 350 academics from various universities were also present.