{"id":116378,"date":"2021-07-22T15:26:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T22:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116378"},"modified":"2021-07-22T15:26:38","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T22:26:38","slug":"the-federation-of-university-teachers-associations-futa-expresses-its-utter-dismay-at-the-sudden-gazette-notification-amending-the-universities-act-of-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/22\/the-federation-of-university-teachers-associations-futa-expresses-its-utter-dismay-at-the-sudden-gazette-notification-amending-the-universities-act-of-1978\/","title":{"rendered":"The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) expresses its utter dismay at the sudden gazette notification amending the Universities Act of 1978"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEDIA STATEMENT<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The government has issued a gazette notification\non 20\/07\/2021, amending the Universities Act of 1978 to include universities\nfor a specific purpose\u201d within the purview of the University Grants Commission\n(UGC). This sudden and ad-hoc amendment to the Universities Act appears to be a\ncalculated move to bring the Kotelawela National Defense University (KNDU)\nwithin the purview of the UGC. Reacting to the major public opposition building\nagainst the KNDU Bill, it appears that the government is attempting to push\nahead with its distorted project of mixing military and civilian education\nthrough this amendment. The government and its advisors are meddling with the\nhigher education regulatory framework of this country either with malicious\nintent to destabilize the entire university system or in absolute ignorance of\nthe far-reaching consequences of their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our last statement FUTA highlighted its\nopposition to ad-hoc changes to the Universities Act of 1978. This amendment\nrealizes our worst fears. By surreptitiously attempting to bring the KNDU\nwithin the purview of the UGC the government hopes to achieve the same\nobjectives contained in the KNDU Bill. The University Grants Commission is an\nentity that regulates civilian university education in the country. It has\nneither the expertise nor the capacity to regulate a defense establishment. If\nthe KNDU is brought within the purview of the UGC, it will result in a\nsituation where the UGC\u2019s authority is undermined and questioned. Time and\nagain we have witnessed how the military hierarchy is unwilling to submit to\ncivilian authority. This is understandable. Within a military structure there\nis no consultative decision making. A military decision-making system by\ndefault follows a command and execute model. However, the Universities Act of\n1978 and the UGC follow a completely oppositional model. They work through a\ndemocratic model based on consultation and compromise. These are values deeply\nenshrined within the Universities Act of 1978. Therefore, this amendment, if\npassed in parliament, will result in a direct conflict between civilian and\nmilitary spheres of authority \u2013 an unwelcome and unnecessary conflict created\nby the hasty bull-in-the-china-shop attitude towards regulatory reform adopted\nby this government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, there is another major contradiction\nin this amendment, which the government\u2019s advisors appear to have missed in\ntheir haste. If KNDU is to be brought under the UGC as a \u2018specific purpose\nuniversity\u2019, which would naturally mean a university set up for the \u2018specific\npurpose\u2019 of educating military officers, how can civilian programs of study be\na part of this university? The classification of KNDU as a \u2018specific purpose\nuniversity\u2019 will automatically invalidate and render illegal all the civilian\nprograms currently operating without regulatory sanction in the university. It\nis apparent, therefore, that through its hasty, non-consultative tinkering with\nthe Universities Act of 1978 the government has created a situation that can\nresult in further confusion, uncertainty and instability in the higher\neducation and university sector in this country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDIA STATEMENT The government has issued a gazette notification on 20\/07\/2021, amending the Universities Act of 1978 to include universities for a specific purpose\u201d within the purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC). This sudden and ad-hoc amendment to the Universities Act appears to be a calculated move to bring the Kotelawela National Defense University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}