Re-establish research culture in universities - Minister S B Dissanayake

Priyanka KURUGALA

The financial position of universities should be strengthened and a research culture should be established again in universities, Higher Educational Minister S B Dissanayake said.

University Lecturers should become role models to guide the country towards a bright and prosperous future.

Their research should be on a global level not just at local level, he said. He was addressing the Scholarships Awarding Ceremony yesterday.

This ceremony was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute.

Under the World Bank Project Higher Education for the Twenty First Century (HETC) the Higher Education Ministry conferred scholarships to 197 university lecturers throughout the universities in the country, he said. The World Bank under the Higher Education for Twenty First Century project has allocated around Rs 600 million towards this task. Targets of this project are to increase PHD holders by 50 percent by 2015.

Under the second stage this number would be enhanced up to 75 percent by 2017. As the third step the Government anticipates a 100 percent PHD holder states by 2020, the Minister said.

Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne, HETC Project Director L L Ratnayake and World Bank Lead Education Specialist Dr Harsha Aturupane also spoke.