-Strict announcement from FUTA
(Lanka-e-News-07.May.2021, 4.35 PM) In the name of national security, a bill called 'Kotalawela National Defense University Bill' is to be introduced with the aim of militarizing universities and higher education. Explaining its danger, the Federation of University Teachers' Associations (FUTA) calls on all faculty, students, civil society and citizens of the country to oppose it. The full text of that announcement as follows.
Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) Statement on Proposed Kotalawela National Defense University Bill
The Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) notes with grave concern the current moves to resurrect the Kotalawela National Defense University (KNDU) Bill. This Bill was first proposed in 2018 and the Sri Lankan academic community expressed its strong opposition to the bill at the time. The KNDU bill threatens to fundamentally change the state higher education landscape in the country by creating a parallel space for fee-levying higher education driven by a highly instrumentalist and military-style decision-making framework. According to the KNDU Bill, the KNDU will be paced within a regulatory framework that exists outside the Universities Act of 1978 under which all state universities and the University Grants Commission (UGC) operates. If enacted, this bill pave the way for the rapid militarization, commercialization and decline of quality, standards and fundamental goals and objectives of university education in the country.