Higher Education Minster S.B. Dissanayake told parliament yesterday universities would soon resume their external degree programmes after restructuring and revising them in keeping with the requirements of the modern day job market here and broad.
The universities have at present suspended the registration of students for external degree programmes.
Democratic National Alliance (DNA) parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said this move would deprive a large number of eligible students from obtaining higher education qualifications.
Read moreIn response, the minister said his ministry had decided to regulate all external degree programmes as a quality improvement measure.
With regard to the Business Administration Course offered by Sri Jayewardenepura University, he said some 10,000 students were registered annually but of them only 250 to 300 students graduate.
“There are instances where a lecturer is expected to scrutinize answer scripts of about 7,000 external students each year. This is practically impossible even though results are issued to the students. We want to regulate these things,” he said.
Daily Mirror - by Kelum Bandara
