Allocation for higher education increased by 114 percent

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake said the allocation on the Higher Education sector from 2005 to 2013 has been increased by 114 percent.

When President Mahinda Rajapaksa took office in 2005, the allocation for the Higher Education Ministry was Rs. 63,000 million. This allocation has been increased to Rs.136,000 million, the Minister told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

The student intake of universities which was 9,000 in 2005 has now been increased to 26,000. In addition, to these allocations for the Higher Education Ministry, nearly 10 Ministries also allocate funds for the higher education sector. Steps are under way to construct an Institute of Technology of the University of Moratuwa (ITUM) at Homagama with Chinese funds. The estimated cost of this project would be Rs. 15 billion. The Ministry has also decided to obtain a soft loan to build 60 new university hostels.

“This kind of massive allocation had not been made to upgrade the country’s university system. We will also obtain funds from Kuwait, Australia and India to further develop our university system.