As a developing nation, Sri Lanka has a reputation for high literacy and a growing young population. But despite this assumption, the enrolment rate for higher education in Sri Lanka stagnates at around 2.5% compared to 5% in other developing nations. One of the main reasons for this is accessibility to state universities that enroll students on a quota system.
According to statistics, only 12% of the total number of students who sat for the A/L examination during last few years had been able to secure a seat in a local university. In 2011, of the 239,744 students who sat for their A/L’s, 141,411 students qualified for admission to local universities of which only 28,908 were admitted. This disparity leads to social and economic issues that aggravate into bigger problems.
Engineering, one of the more favored subjects amongst our youth, had only a handful of student enrolment. Out of the 28,908 students, only 1500 were selected to enter the local university engineering degree programs. As such, the increasing demand for higher education is seen in the large numbers registering as off campus students and leaving the country to study abroad.
To overcome this situation, in 2014, Sri Lanka Telecom launched the Sri Lanka Technological Campus (SLTC) with the motive of realizing Sri Lanka’s vision of becoming the knowledge hub in Asia. Fully owned by Sri Lanka Telecom, the SLTC will offer a full four-year degree program to students, designed to provide sound theoretical, practical and analytical knowledge with the fundamentals of engineering and technology.