Government acknowledges role for private universities

State Minister of Higher Education Mohan Lal Grero has said the government supports the establishment of private universities in light of the fact that over 150,000 students qualify for university admission annually, but only 27,000 or one-sixth can be accommodated in state-run universities, writes Dasun Edirisinghe for The Island.

Addressing a seminar organised by the agriculture faculty of the University of Peradeniya as part of its diamond jubilee commemoration of the university in Colombo, Grero said other students, numbering around 130,000, were left out and some of them opted for vocational education and related areas in the governmental institutions.

That was the reason the government had decided to support the private higher education sector, Grero said. The government would introduce a loan scheme for students who had financial problems to enrol in higher education institutions in Sri Lanka, he said.
Full report on The Island site