Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Colombo University Teachers Association Strike Over New VC

The Teachers' Association of Colombo University has decided to commence a continuous strike unless the new Vice Chancellor of the University Dr. Kumara Hirimburegama resigns within two weeks.
Dr. Kumara Hirimburegama is the husband of Professor Kshanika Hirimburegama who was the former Vice Chancellor of the university. She was promoted as the Chairman of the University Grants Commission.
Both appointments were made by the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa under his executive powers.
Dr. Hirimburegama assumed duties as the Vice Chancellor of Colombo University yesterday.
The Teachers' Association of the Colombo University has decided to boycott the functions participated by the VC and also not to admit the orders and written instructions of the VC.
However, the lectures and examinations are held as usual in the university, the Teachers' Association of the Colombo University says.

Following extract from Online Island 
The Colombo University Teachers’ Association (CUTA) yesterday threatened to launch an all-out strike if the newly appointed Vice Chancellor does not step down from the post within two weeks, or if President Mahinda Rajapaksa does not justify his appointment.

CUTA committee member and President of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told The Island that the teachers were opposed to the new VC, Dr. Wijaya Kumara Hirimburegama, claiming that the appointment was politically motivated and unethical as his wife was serving as the Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

"We decided, at yesterday’s meeting, to boycott all meetings and communication with the new VC," Dr. Dewasiri said adding that they would not accept memos or letters from the newly appointed VC.

He said that three academics, including Dean of the Kothelawala Defence Univeristy’s Law Faculty Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa, former Arts Faculty Dean Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake and Science Faculty’s Dr. Wijaya Kumara Hirimburegama applied for the post, but Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake obtained the majority of votes at the Council meeting.

The three names were sent to the President through the UGC, Dr. Dewasiri said.

"Our association believes that Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake is the most qualified person to handle the post," Dr. Dewasiri said.
The senior academic said that the CUTA will inform President Rajapaksa of their decision and they would go for an all out strike if President does not provide a solution.
The Colombo University announced yesterday that Dr. Wijaya Kumara Hirimburegama was appointed as the new Vice Chancellor of the Colombo University by President Mahinda Rajapaksa with immediate effect.



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Monday, May 27, 2013

Kotalawala Defence University-Bsc Medicine and Surgery

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU)
Medical Council to recognize degree from Kotalawala Defence University

Web Site -Click

Telephone: 011-2635268
 
The Cabinet has approved a proposal to allow the Sri Lanka Medical Council to recognize the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.

The First Batch of Officer Cadets of the Faculty of Medicine of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University will be conferred with the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) in 2014.

The proposal was made by Minister of Health, Maithripala Sirisena to make provision under the Medical Ordinance for the purpose, to enable the Sri Lanka Medical Council to register them under the said Ordinance to practice Medicine and Surgery in Sri Lanka, and was approved by the Cabinet. Courtesy: AdaDerana

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Address: 
General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University  Kandawala Estate,
Rathmalana
Telephone:+94-11-2635268
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Protest at Sabaragamuwa University Sri Lanka

සබරගමු විශ්ව විද්යාලය අසල පසුගිය 24 වැනිදා සිදුවූ බව කියන පිපිරීම් හඬ ගැන සරසවිය මෙතෙක් කිසි ක්රියාමාර්ගයක් ගෙන නැතැයි කියමින් සිසුහු අද උද්ඝෝෂණයක් ඇරැඹූහ.
මෙම පිපිරීම වෙඩි හඩක් බව සිසුහු කියති.
රතිඤ්ඤා පත්තුකිරීමෙන් ඇතිවන හඩක් බව ආරක්ෂක අංශ කියයි. Extract From Lankadeepa


2013 මැයි 24 වන දින(අද) පාන්දර 1.45 පමණ අළු පැහැති ඩිපෙන්ඩර් රථයකින් පැමිණි ආයුධ සන්නද්ධ පිරිසක් විශ්වවිද්යාලය ඉදිරිපිට ආරක්ෂක මුරකුටිය අසලට පැමිණ එහි සිටි ආරක්ෂක නිළධාරීන්ගෙන් ‘‘අමාත්යාංශයෙන් කිසිවක් කීවාදැයි විමසා’’ එවැනි කිසිවක් තමන්ට අමාත්යාංශයෙන් දන්වා නැතැයි පැවසූවිට අහසට වෙඩි තබා පලා ගොස් ඇත.
මේ වන විට සබරගමුව විශ්වවිද්යාලයේ මහා ශිෂ් සංගමය ආසාධාරණ ලෙස පනවා ඇති ශිෂ්යභාවය අත්හිටුවීම් ඉවත් කරන ලෙස හා බොරුචෝදනා මත ශිෂ්යභාවය තහනම් කළ සිසුන්ට අවමය විභාගයට හෝ පෙනී සිටීමට ඉඩදෙන්නැයිද ඉල්ලමින් සතරයක්ගරහයක් විශ්වවිද්යාලයේ පරිපාලන ගොඩනැගිල්ල ඉදිරිපිට ආරම්භ කර ඇත.
මෙම රියාමාර්ගය ආරම්භවු 2013 මැයි 21 වන දින සිටම විශ්වවිද්යාල පරිපාලනයෙන් හා උසස් අධ්යාපන අමාත්යාංශයෙන්ද විවිධ බලපෑම් එල්ල විය. එපමණක් නොව රජයේ ආරක්ෂක අංශ යැයි කියාගන්නා ලද පිරිස් ජංගම දුරකථන හරහා සිසු නායකයින්ට මරණ තර්ජනද එල්ල කළහ. එහිදී රසිදු ජයසිංහ සොයුරා ඇතුළු සිසුන් කිහිප දෙනකුටම මරණ තර්ජන එල්ල වූ අතර පිළිබඳව ඔවුහු පඹහින්න පොලීසියට පැමිණිලි කිරීමටද කටයතු කර ඇත. මෙම සිදු වීමද එම සිදුවීම් පෙළෙහි තවත් එක් තර්ජනාත්මක අවස්ථාවක් ලෙස අදුනාගත හැකි අතර තර්ජනය කර සිසුන් බියවද්දා ශිෂ් රියාමාර්ග වැලැක්වීම එහි අරමුණ බව පැහිදිළිය.
මෙය විශ්වවිද්යාලවල මෙතෙක් සිදුවු සිදුවීම් වල වඩාත් තර්ජනාත්මක අවස්ථාවක් පමණක් නොව ආණ්ඩුවේ වියරුව කොතරම් බරපතලද යන්න විද්යාමාන කරන්නකි. එසේම ඒකාධිපති පාලනයේ හා වර්ධනය වෙමින් තිබෙන මිලිටරි රචන්ඩත්වයේ තවත් එක් නග්න රකාශනයකි. අපි ආණ්ඩුවේ මෙම රජාතන්නරවාදයට හා මානව නිදහසට එරෙහි රචන්ඩ රියා දැඩිපිළිකුලෙන් යුතුව හෙලාදකිනු ලබන අතර වර්ධනය වෙමින් පවතින මෙම රාජ් රස්තවාදී රවනාතාවයන් පරාජය කිරීමට රටක් සමාජයක් ලෙස නැගීසිටීමේ අව්යතාවය දැඩිසේ අවධාරණය කරමු.


Undergraduates of the Sabaragamuwa University yesterday alleged that an unidentified gang had fired into the air, opposite the main gate of the university, in the vicinity of a continuous Satyagraha being performed by them against the suspension of student leaders.
Convener of the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF) Sanjeewa Bandara said that seven unidentified persons had arrived in a pickup truck, with front and rear number plates covered around 1.45 a.m. yesterday and asked the security personnel whether the ministry had given any orders. When the security guard replied in the negative, they fired into the air and left.
He said that the intruders had also tried to enter the university premises but they had left when they saw over 100 undergraduates in the vicinity of the Vice Chancellor’s office.
Head of the Sabaragamuwa University Students Collective Rasindu Jayasinghe said that an unidentified man called him and threatened to kill four or undergraduates including him, within four days.
Jayasinghe said that they believed that yesterday’s incident could be linked to death threats.
"We lodged two complaints with Samanala Wewa police," he said.
Even though the university administration was aware of the incidents, they had yet to take any action to prevent such repeats, Jayasinghe alleged.
When contacted, OIC of the Samanala Wewa police, Sub Inspector Lawrence Fernando said that they were investigating the incidents.
SI Fernando said that according to the complaint students had heard something like a firecracker.
He said that they had provided security to undergraduates outside the university and university security was responsible for the security inside. Extract From:Online Island

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Foreign students to Sri Lanka University


Sri Lanka’s Higher Education Ministry has increased the quota of international students admitted to universities and is offering additional scholarships to foreign students in its aim of becoming a higher education hub in Asia. But the moves have met with resistance amid fears that the number of places for local students will be reduced.Full Story : Click

The foreign student quota was recently increased from just 0.5% to 5% of the student intake at local universities.

The ministry said it hoped that around 1,000-4,000 fee-paying foreign students would be admitted in the course of the next three years – many of them from China, although the majority would be from other South Asian countries.

“We're doing our best to promote our country and bring in foreign income. We hope about 1,000 Chinese undergraduates will arrive here to pursue higher studies later this year,” Deputy Higher Education Minister Nandimithra Ekanayake said during a media briefing.

The minister said 1,292 new slots were available for foreign students in local universities this year. Full Story : Click


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Dr Kumara Hirimburegama New VC of Colombo University

Dr Kumara Hirimburegama New VC of Colombo University
Dr Kumara Hirimburegama
Dr. Kumara Hirimburegama, the first Director who re-established the Institute of Human Resource Advancement of the University of Colombo, and the first Dean of the Faculty of Management, Social Sciences and Humanities of the Kotelawala Defence University of the Defence Ministry was appointed the Vice Chacellor of the University of Colombo by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Professor. S. Suseendirarajah, an Emeritus Professor in Linguistics nominated Dr Hirimburegama for this post to the University Council for its acceptance.
Dr Hirimburegama who was the President of the Institute of Biology (IOB), Sri Lanka in 2006, is a Senior University Academic in the Faculty of Science from 1991 in the field of Microbiology.
He is an internationally recognised scientist with research involvement in Nuclear Techniques and Biological research and Molecular Biotech research at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna-Austria, Cellular Biochemistry research at the University of Leuven-Belgium, Molecular Biotechnology research at Vulcani Agro Research Institute at Bet Dagan-Israel, Banana Virology molecular research at University Minnesota-USA, Chemical & Biological Weapon Prevention in Speiz-Switzerland, and in several other countries.
Dr Hirimburegama is a product with a BSc of the University of Peradeniya, and also the first PhD awarded in Botany of the same University through a joint research programme on Biofertilizers for rice with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna.
Dr Hirimburegama has supervised to produce another PhD holder at the University of Colombo through his research in soil microbiology on straw utilization as an organic soil biological quality improver for rice cultivation. Dr Hirimburegama has carried out rice field research from Anuradhapura to Hambantota, and he was the Project Director of the feasibility study for a proposed new rail-road from Medawachchiya to Trincomalee.
He is a collaborative scientist in the banana improvement project in and a main scientist in establishing the Weligatta Agro Technology Institute of the University of Colombo at Hambantota.
He has introduced the Cisco Networking Academy program of US and the Microsoft Advanced Academy of US programme to the University of Colombo, in addition to several other university-industry collaboration programmes.
He was the Honorary Editor of the Sri Lanka Association for Advancement of Science (SLAAS) from 1999 to 2004.
DrHirimburegama is contributing through modern technology to promote Tamil-Sinhala language speech among Sri Lankans to develop national harmony and peace along with national policies.
Dr Hirimburegama received his entire school education at Richmond College, Galle. Recognizing his contribution as a scientist to education, the 36th Annual Aryabhata International Award for Education - 2010 was awarded to him in Bangalore, India.


Extract From: DailyNews
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