Proposed KNDU Bill & Universities Act-1978 Are Incompatible

By R.P. Gunawardane –JULY 24, 2021

Prof R.P. Gunawardane

It has been reported recently that the government is intending to bring the proposed Kotelawala National Defense University (KNDU) under the University Grants Commission (UGC). This will be an impossible task because the proposed KNDU bill is completely incompatible and inconsistent with the Universities Act of 1978. Therefore, bringing KNDU under the UGC is literally just like trying to fix round pin plug into a square socket!

There are many unanswered questions regarding this proposed bill. The UGC is the primary statutory body responsible for recommending the establishment of new state universities. It is doubtful whether the establishment of the KNDU and its administrative structure was ever discussed at the UGC. Have they sent any specific recommendations? What is the role of the UGC in this regard and what are their comments and recommendations? The general public needs an explanation from the UGC regarding this matter.

Establishment of national institutions of this nature should be done by extensive consultations and national debate in the form of group meetings, seminars, workshops etc. to finalize the draft. There is no evidence for such a national debate for this proposal. On the other hand, Universities Act of 1978 was a brainchild of a well-respected academic and a former Senator Professor Stanley Kalpage, who spent nearly two years with extensive consultations with academics and all the other stakeholders in the country. He held many meetings, seminars and workshops bringing in international scholars as well for consultations before preparing the draft bill. It was implemented with effect from 1st January 1979 and even after a period of over 43 years with many changes of governments, Presidents and Ministers it remains the backbone of the Sri Lankan university system even today. Although a number of minor amendments to this Act were brought in during the last four decades, the main features of the Act remain unchanged.

As practiced internationally democratic governance was brought into the university system maintaining the academic and administrative freedom within the university under the broad national guidelines stipulated by the University Grants Commission. The Universities Act of 1978 was not perfect as in many other cases and therefore further amendments are considered necessary in the current national interests and the global trends.

On the other hand, the proposed KNDU Bill is prepared by a group of military personnel without extensive national consultation or debate. It was not discussed or debated at national level outside the defense establishment. The UGC was not brought in and not officially consulted. Whole approach is completely militaristic and therefore it is not suitable for ordinary civilians for undergraduate studies.

The KNDU administration has a militaristic structure and the decision-making process is not democratic, mostly autocratic completely different from the state university system. University system in Sri Lanka follows international norms with democratic decision making at the faculty, senate and council levels. All unions- student unions, teachers unions, employee unions are functioning freely. Free expression of opinions, peaceful protests are all allowed as in other universities all over the world. On the other hand, KNDU has militaristic structure with no free speech and all unions banned. Thus, KNDU is incompatible with the universally accepted university culture and therefore it cannot and should not be called a university at all. It should be a Sri Lanka Military Academy or National Defense Academy of Sri Lanka. This can best be developed and modeled as a prestigious Academy  for military training in Sri Lanka by following the model of some reputed and prestigious international military academies listed below.

1. United States Military Academy, West Point, USA

2. Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK

3. PLA National Defense University, Beijing, China

4. Pakistan Military Academy

5. National Defense Academy of India.

Reputed Military Academies in the world do not have medical schools/faculties to produce medical doctors. Normal practice is to recruit medical doctors graduated from other universities and giving them special course of military training for a year leading to a postgraduate diploma prior to their confirmation.

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