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| Sunday, 7 April 2002 |
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Students plan series of protests by NEOMI KODIKARA The Inter-University Students' Federation (IUSF) has planned a series of protests against the decision of the University Grants Commission (UGC) to re-constitute the councils of the universities by requesting the members to resign before March 25, 2002. The convenor of the Federation, Ravindra Mudalige, charged that this was a move to politicise the universities in the country, pointing out that Tissa Warakagoda, a member of the Anuradhapura Urban Council, had been appointed as a member of the North-East University Council. The Vice-Chairman of the UGC, Prof. L.L. Ratnayake, said that Tissa Warakagoda had not been elected to that local authority at the time of his appointment, and there were no rules that debarred politicians being appointed as members of the university councils. "What we consider is that they should be eminent persons with suitable academic qualifications and experience," he added. The UGC's decision to re-constitute the councils of universities was due to several factors including problems in management as well as existing vacancies in the councils following the resignation of UGC appointed members, and certain others whose term of office had expired. The UGC had decided on this following complaints received from students, staff and parents that most of the members did not attend council meetings besides being not co-operative in administration, Prof. Ratnayake said. "The disruption of academic programmes also contributed to the re-constitution," he added. He said that it was customary to re-constitute the councils/boards etc. with a change of government. All the councils were re-constituted at the request of the UGC appointed members to tender their resignations in November 94. However, there is provision to re-appoint them as well. Mudalige said their next course action would depend on the response of the UGC and the Minister, adding that they had already informed of it to the Minister of Tertiary and Vocational Training, Kabeer Hashim, and the UGC. The first of the series of protests was held by the members of the IUSF at the North Eastern University last Thursday. |
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