Ten university colleges by year end
Ishara Mudugamuwa
The government is planning to set up ten university colleges by the
end of this year. It will establish 25 university colleges islandwide to
provide higher education for students following the technology stream.
Under the first phase of the project, construction work on the first
university college was commenced recently at the Kuliyapitiya Technical
College premises with the participation of Youth Affairs and Skills
Development Minister Dullas Alahapperuma, Petroleum Industries Minister
Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Telecommunication and Information Technology
Minister Ranjith Siyabalapitiya and Former North Western Province Chief
Minister Athula Wijesinghe.
The government will invest Rs. 200 million on this project.
The students will be able to follow more than 15 technology degree
courses with the establishment of this new university college. Out of
the 25 university colleges, five university colleges will be established
under public, private partnership.
The Education, Higher Educationand Youth Affairs and Skills
Development Ministries will jointly provide infrastructure facilities to
provide better technology education for those who had completed their
school education. For many decades there had been a disparity between
the job market and the prevailing education system. Under the guidance
of President Mahinda Rajapaksa the present government has already taken
measures to establish university colleges as a solution to redress the
balance between the damand in the in the job market and the education
system.
Youth Affairs and Skills Development Minister Dullas Alahapperuma
said that since the North Western Province obtained the highest
percentage of pass marks at the Advanced Level and Ordinary Level
examinations and as the highest number of war heroes come from the North
Western Province the President directed them to establish the first
university college in the North Western Province.
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