Approval has been granted to build 55 new university hostels, Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya told Parliament on Thursday, NewsFirst reported. The University of Peradeniya is among those to receive one.
She was answering a question from Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Chamindrani Kiriella.
A decade-old policy being reversed
The Prime Minister said a policy decision taken in 2015 not to build hostels for university students meant that no new university hostel had been constructed in Sri Lanka for nearly 10 to 15 years.
Over the same period, she said, the number of university students almost doubled — without any corresponding increase in hostel capacity or in academic staff. The current government has taken steps to change the policy.
Where the hostels go first
Priority will initially go to universities outside the main urban areas, where students face the greatest difficulty finding private accommodation. Funds have also been allocated to renovate existing facilities at the University of Peradeniya.
Education allocations
Amarasuriya said the highest-ever allocation for education was made for 2025 and 2026, and said she expected a similar allocation for 2027.
Why it matters
Accommodation is one of the most persistent grievances in Sri Lanka’s state university system, and a recurring trigger for student protest. Where hostel places are short, students rely on private boarding — a cost that falls hardest on those from low-income and rural households, who are also the students the free university system is meant to serve. A building freeze running alongside a near-doubling of intake is the arithmetic behind that pressure.
Amarasuriya, a sociologist and former academic, holds the education portfolio alongside the premiership.
Not reported: the filing does not say how many student places the 55 hostels will provide, what they will cost, who will fund or build them, or when construction starts and finishes. It does not list the universities selected, say how they were chosen, or give the current shortfall in hostel places against demand. It gives no figure for the education allocations described as the highest ever, does not name the 2015 decision or the government that took it, and carries no response from Kiriella or from student unions.
