The Hon. (Ms.) Harini Amarasuriya
The Prime Minister stated that the Government’s policy is to ensure universities operate independently with strong academic freedom. She denied allegations that her Office or the Ministry intervened in university activities, saying the report was false, and noted that she had told Vice-Chancellors, including Peradeniya’s, that debates and events within universities are legitimate and healthy. She also said Vice-Chancellors have a responsibility to uphold academic freedom.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Our policy is that universities should function independently with strong academic freedom. As Prime Minister and subject Minister, neither my Office nor the Ministry intervened in the manner alleged; that report is entirely false. At a meeting with all Vice-Chancellors last week, including Peradeniya, I stated clearly that we have no issue with such events or debates being held within universities; such discourse is healthy and should occur in universities. We did not intervene; I also emphasized Vice-Chancellors’ responsibility to uphold academic freedom.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 8 January 2025 ·No. 1737023464031571 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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/lk/speeches/27547
Cite as: The Hon. (Ms.) Harini Amarasuriya. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 8 January 2025. No. 1737023464031571. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/27547