The Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education has launched 55 new student-hostel projects across 13 state universities, aiming to provide residential accommodation for some 16,000 students under a three-phase construction programme.
The largest allocations have gone to the University of Sabaragamuwa and Rajarata University, each receiving seven hostel projects that will between them house 2,200 students. South Eastern University is to receive six hostels for 2,000 students, while Eastern University and Uva Wellassa University will get facilities accommodating 1,600 and 1,800 students respectively.
The University of Sri Jayewardenepura, the University of Vavuniya and Wayamba University are also among the institutions earmarked for new hostels, alongside projects at the University of Jaffna, the University of Moratuwa, the University of Ruhuna, Gampaha Wickramarachchi University and the Trincomalee Campus.
Most of the projects are at the tendering, evaluation or procurement stage, with preliminary construction already under way at selected sites including the University of Ruhuna, according to the Ministry.
The rollout follows Minister of Education Harini Amarasuriya’s broader higher-education reform agenda announced in May and complements parallel investments in the first batch of 515 nursing graduates recruited at Grade III under the government’s human-capital programme. Cramped residential capacity at outstation universities has been a recurring grievance behind student protests over the past two years, against the backdrop of the state of emergency rolled forward by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on May 28.
Sources: Newswire.
