University teachers calls authorities to fill vacancies in student admissions

Jan 23, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s university teachers say there is a large number of unfilled vacancies in certain faculties of state universities and called relevant authorities to address the issue.

University Teachers for Social Equity (UTSE), releasing a statement, emphasized there had been a large number of vacancies in the science and agriculture faculties of University Grants Commission (UGC) funded universities during the past years. “When we analyze the statistics published by the UGC itself it is possible to identify the gravity of this issue and it is noted that this issue is becoming worse,” university teachers said. “Present and previous ministers responsible for higher education have been quoting numbers of university admissions from their publications and have been promising that they have been increasing the number of student admissions to universities.” The statement said it is evident those statements were not really truthful and there is a decrease in admissions of students to many of the degree programs. “Some parties, who are justifying and promoting private universities, supports the argument that the government universities has no sufficient facilities and opportunities to expand the government funded universities in order to increase the number of students.” “However, the documents published by UGC reveal that the required number of admissions to government funded universities had not been done by UGC for many years to utilize the facilities and opportunities available within those universities.” University Teachers for Social Equity request authorities to take necessary actions urgently to establish a proper procedure to enroll allocated number of students to the science and agriculture faculties according to the available facilities and opportunities those faculties without keeping a single vacancy. The statement urged all parties who appreciate the importance of free education and its protection to come forward in order to get the present system changed for the benefit of children’s higher education.