The Hon. Upali Pannilage - Minister of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, today we debate the Bill to amend the Universities Act, No. 16 of 1978—now 48 years old. It is essential to align university governance with current realities. The last amendments (2016) mainly addressed retirement age and staffing, not deep democratic reforms. These are timely and necessary.

¶ 02 The objectives include democratizing the appointment and tenure of Heads of Departments (HoDs) and Deans, and procedures for their removal—moving away from overly centralized decision-making.

¶ 03 A University has several Faculties, each with a Dean, the Faculty’s Heads of Departments, permanent academic staff, plus two members from the academic staff association and three eminent persons from the region or nationally relevant fields—constituting the Faculty Board.

¶ 04 At present, Deans are elected by the Faculty Board, but eligibility has been restricted largely to HoDs, limiting democracy. We propose opening eligibility to Senior Lecturers (Grade I), Associate Professors, Professors, and Senior Professors—broadening participation. We also introduce term limits for Deans; earlier, they could be reappointed indefinitely every three years.

¶ 05 Currently, HoDs are appointed by the Vice Chancellor (VC), subject to Council approval. We propose that the Council, not the VC alone, appoint HoDs—enhancing collective decision-making. Traditionally, HoDs are appointed by the VC; Deans are chosen from among HoDs; the Senate is largely composed of Deans and HoDs—centralizing power via a single individual’s initial appointments. Our reform opens candidacy and broadens representation in the Senate: all Deans, all HoDs, all Senior Professors and Professors, and representatives of other academic ranks nominated by Faculty Boards—deepening democracy.

¶ 06 The University Council comprises all Deans, the VC (and DVC if any), two representatives of the Senate, and members appointed by the UGC. Under the old model, VC-appointed HoDs led to Deans, then formed the Senate and influenced Council—a highly discretionary chain. We are replacing this with structures that ensure collective, transparent decision-making.

¶ 07 As someone who has served as HoD, Dean, Senate member, and Council member, with 12 academics on our Government benches bringing real experience, we crafted these reforms with inputs from the university community.

¶ 08 On vacancies: We inherited over 460,000 vacancies across the public service due to years of non-recruitment. In universities there were about 5,680 vacancies when we took office. Approvals have now been granted to recruit for 3,713 posts—1,384 academic and 2,329 non-academic—about 65 percent of the shortfall. Recruitment is effected by each University Council; we urge councils to expedite.

¶ 09 We have also expanded student welfare: launched an overseas scholarship scheme for top A/L performers; raised Mahapola from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000; increased bursaries from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 9,000; allocated Rs. 1,500 million for new hostels this year; adopted a policy to facilitate admissions of students with disabilities and provide an additional Rs. 5,000 support; and allocated Rs. 1,800 million to improve canteens, libraries, and sports.

¶ 10 For research and new knowledge creation, we allocated Rs. 11,500 million in Budget 2026; and we provide interest-free loans—Rs. 2,785 million in 2025 and Rs. 3,057 million in 2026—to broaden higher education opportunities. We are funding university digitalization this year as well.

¶ 11 Through these amendments, we are widening democratic decision-making and building a future-ready university system that will produce graduates and postgraduates who contribute significantly to the nation.

¶ 12 Thank you.