Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2019-06-25

Accreditation and Strengthening of the Non-State Higher Educational Institutes

- Although, a number exceeding 150,000 students gain eligibility for admission to the state universities, about more than 125,000 students fail to get the opportunity of admission to the said network due to the limited facilities available at the State Universities. As a solution to the problem, various incentive programmes are being implemented by the Government to encourage the students to get their Degrees from the Non‑State Higher Educational Institutes. In this respect, the attention of the Government has been focused to provide the necessary facilities to the Accredited Non-State Higher Educational Institutes, utilizing the savings of the project on 'Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development Operation (AHEAD)'. Through this, it is expected to expand the higher educational opportunities of the Advanced Level students who do not qualify to gain admission to the state university network. Taking these matters into consideration, the joint proposal made by Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister and Minister of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement & Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development and Youth Affairs and Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Finance, to provide financial assistance to the Accredited Non-State Higher Educational Institutes utilizing the savings of the Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development Operation under the 'Enterprise Sri Lanka' Programme and to appoint an Officials' Committee to monitor the programme, was approved by the Cabinet.