Ahilan Kadirgamar I have always noticed the little paper tags that are inside the packaging of some products that say quality assured or quality control. I often wonder who might have checked the product and stamped that tag, but I also forget the tag soon enough. Decades later, when I entered academia, I was taken […]
Quality Assured Education Commodities Read More »
Hasini Lecamwasam Brain drain in Sri Lanka is at an all-time high. The latest Human Flight and Brain Drain Index for 2024 shows that we are 16th of 175 countries on this count, and first in South Asia. That this is a crisis goes without saying. Brain drain affects all sectors, and is a huge
The emptying university: why are academics leaving? Read More »
Anushka Kahandagamage Education is the right of every child. Yet somewhere between childhood and the robe, that right becomes precarious for many Buddhist women in Sri Lanka, threatening not only their social standing, but their fundamental access to learning and the institutional discrimination they face. This piece is not about Buddhist disciplinary rules, which discriminates
A Robe Without Recognition: The Long Road to Educating Sri Lanka’s Bhikkhunis Read More »
Shamala Kumar PART II This two-part Kuppi Talk addresses the seeming the lack of a systematically formulated policy for free university education. Policy and University Education – the 1950s The 1950s saw the fruits of free education reach the university. The SLFP-led government formed in 1956 transformed what had been reserved for a privileged few
Do we have a policy for higher education? Read More »
Shamala Kumar Through a review of the history of national policy making on university education, this first of a two-part Kuppi Talk demonstrates the persistent lack of a strong and systematically formulated policy for Sri Lanka’s university system. PART I Free education and the birth of a free country “We contemplate generally that the cost
Do we have a policy for higher education: A historical analysis Read More »
Kaushalya Perera Academics involved in education policy like to say that there is no such thing as a private university in Sri Lanka. The only ‘universities’ in the country are state universities; anything else offering degrees are private higher education institutions (HEIs). This position is technically accurate. Yet, in the discourse and imagination of the
Udari Abeyasinghe It has been almost two months since the judgement of Abeyasinghe v Tilakaratne and others by the Supreme Court. Since then, I have often been asked a simple question, which I too have asked myself. “Has anything actually changed?” my answer is both yes and no. Judgements can uphold the law, direct institutions
The Perfect Victim: How Institutions Respond Read More »
Nandaka Maduranga Kalugampitiya The biggest part of the challenge of a critical scholar in the humanities is having to engage critically with the very realities that define her existence as a social being. She cannot even begin to comment on the focus of her study without creating shock waves that would hit her own self
The Burden, and also Strength, of the Critical Scholar in the Humanities Read More »
Mahendran Thiruvarangan A public university relies on its teachers in fulfilling its responsibilities to the wider community. While teaching remains the chief responsibility of the academic staff, they also conduct research and play a central role in keeping the university a vibrant space where they and students can freely participate in conversations that concern not
Pitfalls and Exclusions in Academic Recruitment Read More »
By Sivamohan Sumathy Free Education has been with us for more than 80 years now. It predates independence. One of its clearest objectives was to give the people, far and wide, an equitable chance. Given the fragile economy we have, first dependent on export crops and now, on exporting labour, through a volatile manufacturing sector,
Deep Seek Matters: Education and its divides Read More »
