The Government is to set up an Australian style University of Police and Criminal Justice, shortly, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Saturday.
“This university will be different. It will not be a traditional British and Sri Lankan style university. It is going to be a university based on the model of Deakin University Australia,” he said speaking at a seminar organised by the University of Sri Jayawardenepura over the weekend.
The Prime Minister who stressed the need for a change in the university system said universities will be put under administrative boards which comprise representatives of the academic staff, past students, the government, constitutional councils and non academic personnel.
“Past students, academic staff, non academics, government and the constitutional council will be given the right to administer the universities. In such a system a university will be given wide responsibilities. It will also be possible to obtain financial assistance from the past pupils.
The University of Colombo could be easily changed to such a system. We need to think of such systems,” he said.
He also said, it is essential to focus on the education of academic staff. It is also possible to set up a special institution to train the academic staff especially on languages.
The Prime Minister proposed further changes and suggested that students should be allowed to choose the subjects they want to study in universities.
“It is appropriate to have a system where students will have a right to choose university courses of their choice rather than having ‘Z’ score systems. In this country it is not possible for a student to select a combination such as mathematics and history. This should be changed.
“Also the student entertainment is essential. If not we will see a situation where the university students suing the authorities for violating their rights,” he added. He said this is an ideal time to think about changing the university system as the country is ruled by a national government.
“Government will go for talks with Federation of University Teacher Associations (FUTA) by end of this month when the discussions on changing the schools system is completed,” the Prime Minister added. (Yohan Perera)
