• Military institution not a suitable place to provide higher education to civilians
• The President’s reference to a “UGC Act” was a mistaken reference to the  Universities Act of 1978 as there was no such Act called “UGC Act” 

 By Ajith Siriwardana   

While claiming that a military institution was not a suitable place to provide higher education to civilians, the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) yesterday called on the government to restructure the existing Kotelawala National Defense University to serve its intended purpose of providing higher education and training to officers of the tri-forces.    

The FUTA said in a statement that all academic programmes currently enrolling civilian students in the KDU should be integrated into the existing university system in the country.   
“We are currently living through the deep and negative consequences of arbitrary decision making and the unnecessary encroachment of the military into areas of civilian governance. The government’s hasty, non- consultative and ignorant attempts at university and higher education reform at this point, will simply lead to the creation of an education system and culture which will lack quality, rigor and will erode the fundamental values on which our education system is built,” he said.