Sri Lanka will be considering admitting students of Sri Lankan origin (not necessarily born in Sri Lanka but are born to Sri Lankan parentage) who are domiciled abroad, as foreign students to Sri Lanka’s State universities.
“We are mainly targeting foreign students," the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission, Prof. Sampath Amaratunge told The Daily Morning yesterday (2). “However, we will be considering students of Sri Lankan origin who currently reside abroad.”
However, according to the Ministry of Education, the candidate must have sat the relevant exam outside Sri Lanka and must have studied abroad for a period of five years before sitting for the said exam. This would therefore exclude students who sit for foreign secondary school exams in Sri Lanka.
Amaratunge said that the medical degrees offered by Sri Lanka’s State universities are in high demand, with there being 50 foreign students who are being considered for medical degrees. “All medical faculties accept foreign students for clinical training as well,” Amaratunge said. “This is a necessary part of a medical degree. We have around 400 foreign students undergoing clinical training.”
In October of last year (2023), the University of Colombo allowed foreign students to enrol in the Medical Faculty for a course fee of United States Dollars 62,500. The State Minister for Higher Education, Dr. Suren Raghavan said that the requirements to study medicine for foreign students are a minimum of two credit passes and a simple pass in Biology, Chemistry and Physics at a foreign exam. These qualifications must also be obtained in one sitting.
The establishment of private medical faculties has been met with some outrage among the undergraduates at State universities, with marches being organised by the Medical Faculty Students Action Committee against the decision to establish a Faculty of Medicine at the National School of Business Management.
The lack of private medical faculties has led students with foreign qualifications such as the Edexcel and Cambridge certificates as well as the International Baccalaureate to study abroad.