By Saman Indrajith

Education Minister Prof G.L. Peiris told Parliament yesterday that the government had introduced a transparent and fair method to select university Vice Chancellors.

Responding to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, Prof Peiris said that the government had set up a five-member committee to select eligible applicants. The committee comprises experts from the administrative service.

Prof Peiris said that under the previous system, the names from the applicants for the post of Vice Chancellor had been selected by a vote at University Councils. There had been room for irregularities under that system, he said, adding that there had been instances where university Council Members were under pressure to vote for certain candidates.

Three applicants who got the highest votes would be sent to the President to select a person of his choice, Prof. Peris said.

The Minister said that under the new system candidates would face evaluations at two phases. Those who had rendered an outstanding service to the university system would get priority under the new system. The candidates would, according to the marks in evaluations conducted by the five-member committees would be selected. The government had no intention of changing the newly introduced mechanism, the Minister said.

Prof. Peiris disagreed with Opposition leader Premadasa’s observation that the new mechanism of selecting Vice Chancellors would amount to a contravention of Section 34 (1) –A of the Universities Act No 16 of 1978 and Universities (Amendment) Act No 7 of 1985.

The government had not given the Vice Chancellor or Acting Vice Chancellor posts to its friends and supporters, the Minister said.

Opposition Leader Premadasa asked whether the Minister could table the marking schemes and the number marks obtained by those who had applied for the post of Vice Chancellor at the universities of Jaffna, Uva, Kelaniya, Sabaragamuwa, Wayamba and Aesthetic University, and the Minister said that he would do so.

Opposition Leader Premadasa said that recently a Vice Chancellor had been selected to the Aesthetic University under the new mechanism and he was an expert in agriculture sciences and not aesthetic subjects. Prof Peiris said that selection had been made on consideration of the candidate’s administrative skills and there was no mandatory provision that the Vice Chancellors should be selected from a particular discipline.