www.lankauniversity-news.com
A group of female students of the Kelaniya university have occupied a canteen area of the university due to an issue pertaining to their hostels. The students note that they were forced to resort to this measure as authorities who identified their issue are yet to find a solution to it.
Around 300 students are currently housed in these premises.
The Students’ Union of the university charges that around 800 students were denied hostel privileges this year.
Chairman of Kelaniya University Students Union, Kingsley Gunaratne said: ” In 2010 they wanted to suppress the students so they implemented a change in hostels. This resulted in about 800 students losing hostel privileges…”
Vice Chancellor of Kelaniya University, Sarath Amunugama expressed the following views:”None of the national universities are capable of completely solving their hostel problems. We provide hostel facilities for first year students and students in their final year. If you look at the figures you see an issue pertaining to female first year students. We have provided facilities for 92% of the students who applied. We have also provided facilities to 95% of the final year students that applied ..”
However, responding to a query raised in Parliament on Tuesday Minister of Higher Education , S.B. Dissanayake notes that universities have only spent less than 50% of the funds allocated to their ministry.
He made following comment: “.. There is no issue about funding. What we are trying to do is to keep our expenses below 70% of the allocated funds. in 2010 a majority of the universities spent less than 50% of their allocated funds.
Source - Newsfirst