Sri Lanka ranked No. 1 in South Asia for providing graduate education

Sri Lanka has been ranked number one in South Asia for providing graduate education. This was revealed at a meeting between Rauff Hakeem, Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education and Leader of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and a delegation from the Sri Lanka wing of the World Bank, held at the minister’s office in Parliament on Wednesday (6).

The meeting held to explore ways and means of enhancing cooperation in the field of higher education, was attended by World Bank’s Lead Economist and Program Leader for Human Development for Sri Lanka and the Maldives Harsha Aturupane, Ministry of Higher Education Secretary Priyantha Mayadunne, University Grants Commission Chairman Prof. Mohan De Silva, and SLIATE Director General Prof. K.D.M. Udayanga Hemathilake. 

The topics that were taken up for discussions during the meeting included, streamlining higher education programs in line with the economic development of the country, producing graduates according to the needs of the labour market and initiating research and innovative programs to prepare graduates to fit into the society.

To bring the standard of education of private higher educational Institutes to the level of government universities was also discussed during the talks.  

Harsha Aturupane detailed the programs undertaken by the World Bank in helping higher education programs in faculties such as science, medicine and engineering and technical education in universities and colleges. 

Dwelling on the World Bank’s assistance to technical education, Aturupane explained how the bank could attract resource personnel with attractive perks to develop technical education in the island.   The participants also discussed the importance of setting up recreational parks in the vicinity of the universities and technical colleges throughout the island.