Final stage of academics’ salary hike from Oct 1:

Govt ready for talks to prevent student victimization

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

The government is always ready for cordial discussions with university academics, who have resorted to trade union action to avoid university students being victimised, Higher Education Minister SB Dissanayake said.

The minister said academic staff salaries have been increased a great deal from time to time within a short period disregarding the salaries of parallel services.

“The academic staff have already been receiving a certain portion of the salary increment but the final stage of the increment will be implemented from October 1, this year. The salaries of university academic staff will be increased by around 70 percent,” he said.

“The highest salary increment will be 83.61 percent and the least increment will be 39.12 percent,” the minister said.

“Accordingly, the all inclusive salary of a senior professor will be Rs 172,227.75 per month from October 1 representing an increment of 83.61 percent. The all inclusive salary of a professor will be Rs 157,332.10 (82.12 percent). All inclusive salary of an assistant professor will be Rs 136,855.70, a 71.88 percent increase, a grade one senior lecturer will receive an all inclusive salary of Rs 113,755.80(65.89 percent) while the gross salary of a grade two senior lecturer will be Rs 104,677.80 (61.53 percent). A lecturer will receive a all inclusive salary of Rs 83,000.70 representing a salary increase of 54.03 percent. A lecturer on probation period will receive a gross salary of Rs 67,369.44 per month while the salary increment rate will be 39.12 percent, “the Minister added.

Minister Dissanayake said this salary increment of university academic staffers have resulted a severe imbalance of state services salaries. However, the government took this step to increase the salaries of university academic staff parallel to the ongoing university system restructuring process aiming to convert Sri Lanka as the knowledge hub of Asia and upgrade all state universities as world class universities. “Besides, the Higher Education Ministry is pro-actively accepting the responsibility for our own graduates and 100 percent employable graduates. Moves have been taken to create a professional graduate who are qualified with professional courses such as CIMA, Chartered, CIM, leadership qualities, ICT, English etc. Moreover, the graduate will be converted to an enterprising graduate, who create employment opportunities than mere a job seeker,” Minister Dissanayake said.

The minister further said that government has taken steps to drastically increase the amounts of other benefits and allocations of the university academics. The paper marking allowance has been increased by 500 percent while the visiting lecture allowance has been increased by 300 percent. Housing loans have been increased from Rs 500,000 to Rs. one million.

Speaking on the main demand of the academics of a 6 percent allocation from the GDP for the education sector, the minister said the government allocates a significant amount to the higher education through various Ministries and projects. Even though it is difficult to calculate the total allocation for education it has been roughly estimated that the government allocates 4.5 percent of the GDP for education from the GDP. It is significant that this allocation is increasing gradually except in the two years which ruled by the UNP government. The allocation for higher education in 2000 was Rs 5.4 billion and in 2005 it was Rs 10.9 billion. The allocation in 2010 was Rs 19.32 billion while in 2012 government allocated Rs 24.8 billion.

The minister speaking on the benefits of the university lecturers said they receive many benefits which are not received by any of the public servants. One Year’s sabbatical leave is given for every seven years of service. A travel grant for the lecturers and spouses for any university in the world is offered.

Three years and nine month full pay study leave for M.Sc or PhD and the travel grant, vacation leave for three months per year on full pay on approval of the faculty board, full pay leave to obtain proficiency in languages up to 6 months, 42 days of conference leave to attend workshops or conferences anywhere in the world, housing loans at concessionary interest of 7 percent and the government pays 5.5 percent interest etc.