Sri Lanka university incentives not limited for foreign parties: official

Apr 04, 2011 (LBO) - Incentives given for new private universities will be open to all qualified parties and is not limited to foreign universities, Sri Lanka's higher education ministry secretary Sunil Nawaratne said.





"If you are not in the government you are eligible," Nawaratne told a forum of state and private educators called together by the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM).

"The only issue you have to prove your quality.

You have to show you have the capacity to deliver good quality graduates."

Until now Sri Lanka had restricted the education liberties of the people by making degree awarding a state monopoly.

Officials say about a third of the graduates (about 5,000) produced by the state system are unemployable and have to be given jobs with the tax money collected from the people.

However affiliated colleges have cropped up and there are also international professional bodies which have grown in size in recent years.

Nawaratne said the cabinet of ministers had already approved the setting up of a regulatory framework and agency to accredit 'non-state' higher educational institutes and a draft law will be presented to the parliament soon.

Nawaratne sa