brand logo

UGC draws flak over decision to admit 100 students to KDU

04 Oct 2021

  • Anti-militarisation movement seeks meeting with UGC Chair
By Pamodi Waravita The Peoples’ Movement Against the Militarisation of Education yesterday (4) condemned the recent decision taken by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to admit 100 students to the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) Medical Faculty as opposed to admitting these students to any of the universities under the UGC. “We believe that this situation arose due to the UGC’s mishandling of admissions for the 2019/2020 academic year. The UGC’s insistence on using the composite average to select students from new and old syllabi resulted in an anomalous situation, where many students, who might otherwise have qualified for admission to state universities, were deprived of the opportunity. We fail to see why the Government has made a decision to admit these students to the KDU Medical Faculty when there are 11 state medical faculties under the UGC,” the Movement noted in a letter to UGC Chairman Prof. Sampath Amaratunge. Alleging that the aforementioned admission is outside of the legal mandate of the KDU, the Movement sought an immediate meeting with Prof. Amaratunge. They questioned as to why the Government was intent on spending state funds to admitting medical students to the KDU, instead of to state-run medical facilities, and further queried as to whether the Government is engaged in an “underhand and duplicitous move” to normalise civilian admissions to the KDU, as the necessary legal reforms in this regard have faced strong public resistance. “The UGC is supposed to play the role of an independent regulator of university education in this country but unfortunately, the UGC is turning a blind eye to the continued illegal operation of the KDU which is not legally empowered to admit civilians. We also observe with alarm that the current UGC Chairman sits on the Board of Management of the KDU as a ‘UGC Representative’ and is therefore an active participant in this continuing illegality. We would like to remind the UGC and the UGC Chairman that they are answerable to the public as public officers and are wilfully undermining the responsibilities of their public office by supporting the illegal admission of civilian students to the KDU.” Meanwhile, the Movement also urged the UGC to “completely overhaul” the admission process to state universities, alleging that such blunders during admission amounts to a huge cost. It accused the UGC of continuously blocking attempts to reform the current unaccountable nature of the admission procedure. “The UGC’s unashamed and politically motivated defence of the KDU with little regard for the militarisation of civilian education is simply yet another instance where the UGC is directly acting against the best interests as well as the opinions of the academic community of the 15 universities directly under the UGC,” alleged the Movement. Prof. Amaratunge was unavailable for comment on the matter. Meanwhile, the Government’s attempts to pass the controversial Kotelawala National Defence University (KNDU) Bill earlier this year was met with a range of protests, which criticised the Bill for its alleged threats to free education and the militarisation of education.  


More News..