Govt. considering taking over Batticaloa Campus

The government was considering taking over the controversial Batticaloa campus, Minister of Education, Prof. G.L. Peiris told Parliament on Thursday.

Answering a question posed by SJB MP Kavinda Jayawardane, the Minister said that the institution had not been given degree-awarding status. This particular institution had a lot of state-of-the-art facilities which were not available even in the University of Peradeniya, the Minister said.

“There are two options for the Batticaloa Campus. One is to make it an affiliated college of the Kotelawala Defence Academy. The other is running this as a state institution. We have admitted 100 medical students to the Kotelawala Defence Academy. They too must be given the necessary facilities,” he said.

Minister Peiris said 30,000 students had been admitted to universities last year. About 41,500 students would be enrolled for the current year, he added.