• UGC in talks to resume recruitment

Leave taking by university academic staff including for both sabbatical and postgraduate studies has drained universities of academics, the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) claimed in a backdrop where talks are ongoing to commence recruitments.

“A large number of academic staff, around 500 to 600, have taken sabbatical (one year of paid leave after seven years of work or two years of no pay leave following seven years of work) and have gone abroad while another 300 lecturers have taken leave for their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree studies,” the FUTA Secretary and Media Spokesperson, Senior Lecturer Prof. Charudaththe Illangasinghe told The Daily Morning yesterday (25).

Illangasinghe said that this study leave puts a strain on the university system as there is a loss of academic staff at universities, leading to an increased student to lecturer ratio. “Many of these lecturers have retired due to the taxes and economic crisis while several take leave to do PhDs in the hopes of finding employment elsewhere,” Illangasinghe said. Poor salaries and the emergence of private universities have resulted in many lecturers leaving the State service and either migrating or moving on to private universities in hopes of better pay, Illangasinghe said, claiming that this has left the university system with approximately 6,000 academics to teach students.

“However, the Government has stopped recruiting academics, so therefore, we request that the new Government recruits new academics as soon as possible.”

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has meanwhile confirmed that the recruitment of academics will be commenced. "Due to the staff shortage, we have had talks in order to start recruiting academics into the universities," UGC Chairperson, Prof. Kapila Seneviratne told The Daily Morning. 

The lack of staff has led to several universities lacking the human resources to expand their student population, especially their foreign students, despite the medical degree being in high demand by foreign students.