Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2020-12-14

Amendment of the Universities Act, No.16 of 1978 for inclusion of provisions required for the establishment of Universities with specific purposes in this country in order to convert Colleges of Nursing and Teacher Training Colleges into Universities

- It has been identified the need to create globally competitive professionals with high professional recognition and proficiency, enhancing the quality of Nursing and Teaching professions in order to build a knowledge based economy through human resource development within the Government Policy Framework “Vistas of Prosperity”. At present, there is a high demand for nursing and teaching professionals in global competitive job market. The need to improve the quality of Nursing Colleges operating under the supervision and regulation of the Ministry of Health and Teacher Training Colleges which produce teaching professionals functioning under the Ministry of Education has also been identified and it is observed that establishing of two separate universities for the said purpose is appropriate. Therefore, the joint proposal made by the Minister of Education and the Minister of Health to amend the Universities Act, No.16 of 1978, enabling to establish the proposed two universities as universities with specific purposes, deviating from the traditional modal universities, was approved by the Cabinet.