Draft NGU Act forwarded to AG's Dept - SB

Sandasen Marasinghe Irangika Range and Disna Mudalige

Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake told Parliament yesterday that a draft Non-Governmental Universities (NGU) Act had been forwarded to the Attorney General and the implementation of this Act would shut down the institutes which sell degrees.

Participating in the third reading of budget 2012 under the votes of his ministry, the minister said there are many institutes which award degrees for money in the country and these operated without a proper mechanism for their regulation.

The minister said that the government likes to give more freedom to state sector universities but there was a problem the students abusing this freedom. For more than 30 years the state universities had been run according to the dictates of the students.

The government in the name of reforms wanted to change this situation, he said.

Instructions have been given to all universities to change the medium of instruction from Sinhala to English.

It is our aim to enable degree holders to work in English and IT environments. The students would be provided all the opportunities to attain higher knowledge and proficiency in information technology and English language.

The Non-Governmental Universities Act had been approved by the Minister of Cabinet and now forwarded to the Attorney General's Department.

We hope to bring it to Parliament within five to six months. This, if implemented to the letter would help make Sri Lanka the Knowledge Hub in South Asia. All the degree and diploma selling institutes would be closed down.