• Stricter guidelines including scrutiny of overseas invites in the offing 
• FUTA claims such unnecessary as most on schols. have signed bonds, and only minority offend 

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is to put in place stringent guidelines for academics travelling abroad following reports of academics not returning.

“Overseas travel has often been misused by university academic staff that makes excuses to go abroad,” the UGC Chairperson Prof. Kapila Seneviratne told The Daily Morning yesterday (25).”Many of them show some sort of invitation and use Government money to go abroad; however, this will not continue, as stringent measures will be taken to assess if they need to go abroad.” These comments follow reports of academics taking paid time off to travel abroad and refusing to return to the country. “However, if they have a genuine reason to leave, we will pay for airfare and accommodation,” Seneviratne said.

Despite the announcement of the stringent measures, the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) stated that several academic staff leave on scholarships and that this is not a waste of Government money and that hence, stricter regulations are futile. “Many of these academics are on scholarships and have signed bonds,” the FUTA Secretary and Media Spokesperson, Senior Lecturer, Charudaththe Illangasinghe told The Daily Morning. “For every 100 academics that go abroad, there will be only one who does not return and these damages will be covered by the guarantors and their Universities Provident Fund so there will be no need for such strict regulations.” Illangasinghe explained that prior to academics paid travel abroad, a bond is signed with two guarantors that bound the guarantors to pay an amount if the academic has not returned. Further, the lost money can be claimed from the academics Universities Provident Fund.

The Universities Provident Fund was established under Sections 88 and 89 of the Universities Act which states that members allocate 10% of their earnings while employers make a contribution of 15% to the Fund.