Reducing of the duration of
AHS degree
Higher Education Minister S.
B. Dissanayaka yesterday admitted that his decision to reduce the four-year
Allied Health Sciences (AHS) degree programme to three years had been made
under pressure from the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GEOF).
Minister Dissanayakas told a
public meeting in Kandy that the GEOF had opposed the four-year degree and did
not allow AHS students to do clinical practices at respective teaching
hospitals.
At present, AHS students
from the Peradeniya and Ruhuna Universities are staging a Satyagraha at Galaha
junction and Galle town respectively and boycotting lectures to protest against
the reducing of the duration of the degree.
Minister Dissanayakas said that
Vice Chancellors of universities, University Grants Commission (UGC) or Higher
Education Ministry could not reverse the decision owing to pressure from the
government doctors.
Dissanayakas told The Island
few months ago that his ministry had consulted the University of Wales in the
United Kingdom when designing the AHS course. The Wales course was also three
years. Deaking University of Australia also offered a three-year nursing
degree. The Singapore State University’s nursing degree was also a three-year
course.
President of the AHS
Students’ Union Ranitta Prasad yesterday asked the minister whether a trade
union could meddle with the policies of the Higher Education Ministry and the
UGC. He accused the minister of simply passing the buck to the GEOF.
"We will not give up
our protest until winning the four – year period for our degree," Prasad
said.
Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor
of the Peradeniya University Prof. Athula Senaratne said that the Allied Health
Sciences Faculty would be closed indefinitely if undergraduates did not return
to lectures today.
The new degree courses
started in 2006 in Peradeniya, Colombo, Sri Jayewardenepura, Eastern, Rajarata
and Ruhuna universities were of a four year duration. The UGC and Higher
Education Ministry decided to cut it down to three years from 2009, but it was
delayed due to students’ protests.
Source - island
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