The Government will set up 10 Universities close to cities and the first one will be set up in Kegalle on July 15 under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. All these Universities are different to the conventional Universities just like the Kotelawala Defence University, Education Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said in Parliament yesterday.
Joining the debate on the Sir John Kotelawala National University Bill in Parliament yesterday, he said that the Kotelawala University has a unique identity and is not a conventional University. “If this University too was conventional, then it would not be beneficial to the country,” he said. “There has to be some uniqueness. Therefore, not only the Kotelawala University, more higher education institutions will be set up. A university will be set up for nurses and teachers. I admit that there is a clause in the 1978 No. 16 University Act read out by Minister Basil Rajapaksa that says that this Act will not have a bearing on the Kotelawala University. But this does not mean that the University Grants Commission (UGC) does not have any regulatory authority over it. The Kotelawala University is part of the country’s University Network and not an institution, which is not a part of the main system