Only 100 foreign students apply to Lankan universities

Daily Mirror, 07/11/2011 MONDAY, 07 NOVEMBER 2011 23:30 Only about 100 foreign students have applied to study at local universities though the Higher Education Ministry provided opportunities for more than 1,000 students to do so, officials said today. The ministry had taken a policy decision to increase the annual foreign-student quota to enter local universities from one per cent to five per cent. The annual course fee for Medical and Dental Sciences is US$12,000 whereas it is US$10,000 for Para Medical Courses such as Nursing and Radiography. The course fee for Law is US$5,000 for Management Studies and Commerce US$4,000.  The fee for Engineering Design and Architecture is US$8,000. When asked about the response from foreign students, Higher Education Ministry Secretary Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said some 100 applications had been received from foreign students, and they were being processed at the moment. “Most of them have applied for Medicine and Engineering,” he said. Dr. Navaratne said this was the first time Sri Lanka opened up its universities for foreign students on a big scale. “Initially, there can be a poor response. But it will improve later,” he said and added that Sri Lanka offered 100 separate scholarships to foreign students to follow various degree courses here and five of the applications selected through Sri Lanka’s diplomatic missions abroad had been processed. “We are waiting to accept them now. There is one student from Palestine,” he said. (By Kelum Bandara)