History
The first institution of modern higher education in the island was established in 1921 as the University College Ceylon; even thought there several institutions of vocational education before that. In 1942 the first university was established as the University of Ceylon with several campuses island wide, Colombo (established 1942), Peradeniya (established 1949), Vidyodaya (established 1959), Vidyalankara (established 1959) and Katubedda (established 1972). It was dissolved in 1972 to establish the University of Sri Lanka. Jaffna campus was added to the university in 1974. With the promulgation of the Universities Act. No 16 of 1978, state university status was restored to the 6 separate campuses. University Grants Commission (UGC) was also created to plan and coordinate the state university education. After that, a number of state universities have been created. All these state universities are registered under the University Grants Commission, but a few come under the auspices of ministries other than the Ministry of Higher Education, in which the UGC is a part of.
Most of the state universities depend on funds given by the University Grants Commission, as it is their primary and sometimes only source of funding. Therefore the UGC has a direct control over these universities and administer the undergraduate intake. The UGC is subordinate to the Ministry of Higher Education.
A few other public and private institutes exist which function interdependently. Government has a stake in some of these institutions. The most prominent, is the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), which formally came under the Ministry of Science & Technology. The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University was a similar institute but has since been classed as a state university, however under the control of the Ministry of Defense.
Read more about this topic: List Of Universities In Sri Lanka
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