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No reason given yet for KDU closing its doors to paying civilian MBBS students
View(s):By Namini Wijedasa and Dilushi Wijesinghe
The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) has abruptly stopped the enrolment of fee-paying civilian students to its undergraduate medical degree programme, despite there being no written directive to its Vice Chancellor (VC) to do so.
The matter came to light in Parliament on May 22 this year when Deputy Defence Minister Major General (Retd) Aruna Jayasekara announced that the most recent student enrolment advertisement for the KDU Medical Faculty will be amended to say only cadets and international students will be accepted in the 2025/26 intake. Domestic civilian students, also called “day scholars”, will no longer be admitted.
KDU follows guidelines set by the University Grants Commission. (Pic KDU website)
More paying students than not
The Cabinet under former President Ranil Wickremesinghe had adopted a policy decision to admit domestic civilian students to its Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme. These fee-paying students were enrolled with suitable educational qualifications such as GCE Advanced level, Cambridge/Edexcel or equivalent. And local civilian students have long followed courses in KDU’s other faculties.
Accordingly, there are currently two batches of domestic MBBS day scholars at KDU. Intake 41 saw the enrolment of 120 domestic undergraduates alongside 19 cadets and 41 foreign students. Intake 42 absorbed 110 local students, 30 foreign undergraduates and nine cadets.
Therefore, the number of paying students in KDU’s MBBS programme vastly outnumbers cadets, who are not charged fees. The last published cost of the five-year course was Rs. 15mn, or Rs. 300,000 per annum.
Abrupt, unexpected halt
The advertisement for KDU’s 43rd intake initially invited applications from local students of the biological science A/Level stream. But there is now a dramatic banner announcement on the relevant page titled “Important Notice Regarding MBBS Degree Applications (Day Scholars)”.
“The MBBS degree programme will not be offered to local students who have sat for the G.C.E. (A/L) examinations or any equivalent foreign examination locally,” it states. “Applicants who have already submitted applications for the MBBS degree will not be considered, and their application fees will be refunded in due course. Applications submitted for multiple degree programmes will be considered and processed, excluding the MBBS degree.”
The list of available courses no longer contains any reference to MBBS at all. But enquiries by The Sunday Times revealed that the suspension or cancellation (it is not clear which applies) was not the result of any written instructions to Rear Admiral Dammika Kumara, the VC, from anywhere.
“We haven’t informed the VC in writing,” Maj Gen Jayasekara admitted to the Sunday Times. “We only announced the decision in Parliament. We have arranged a series of discussions with the Health Minister and the Education Minister starting on Monday or Tuesday.”
Following the Deputy Defence Minister’s special statement in Parliament, multiple sources said the Vice Chancellor was among some officials who attended a meeting with Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, who is also the Education and Higher Education Minister. The VC did not comment. But these sources said the Prime Minister backed the move to shut local day scholars out of the MBBS programme.
No reason given
The reason for – or even the reasoning behind – this decision has not been made public. There had been no Cabinet decision to this effect. Neither had the KDU’s Board of Management adopted a policy decision. A message from the Sunday Times to Prime Minister Amarasuriya requesting a conversation went unanswered.
This has led to speculation that the PM’s longstanding opposition to “the commercialisation” and “militarisation” of education is to blame. It was also postulated that the large number of medical doctors within the National People’s Power (NPP) faction of the government is behind the move. In the absence of any transparency on the matter, it was not possible to confirm or dismiss any of these “opinions”.
One thing was clear from the extensive interviews that we conducted: the decision to stop enrolling local day scholars to the MBBS programme, despite being announced in Parliament by the Deputy Defence Minister, had not been taken by the Defence Ministry.
As an educational institution, KDU follows guidelines set by the University Grants Commission; and every Board of Management meeting must include a UGC representative. But it is not clear how much control the Education or Higher Education Ministry can wield over the KDU, which the Subjects and Functions Gazette firmly places under the Defence Ministry. The Defence Minister is President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. He has not made his position publicly known.
Separately, calls to Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa were also not picked up. The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) said it will give an official response after its Executive Committee meeting tomorrow.
Just maintain quality
“When the previous government decided to admit local students, we raised several concerns about the recruitment criteria and process based on details they had published,” said Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe, GMOA Spokesman. “We requested them to withhold the recruitment process pending clarification of those issues. But they continued enrolment regardless, and even took in another batch.”
The GMOA’s policy is that expansion of Sri Lanka’s medical education must not affect the quality of the health system or its human resources. “We still do not know why the decision [to stop MBBS day scholars] was taken,” Dr. Wijesinghe added, echoing even sources within KDU that there was “utter confusion”. “The government did not reveal it. But neither did the previous government give its reasons [for accepting MBBS day scholars].”
“Our immediate concern is to safeguard, or maintain, the quality and standard of medical education in the country,” he reiterated. “Whatever supports that process, we will back.”
SLMC not informed
The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) is the statutory body that regulates the medical profession. One of its main functions is to ensure the maintenance of academic and professional standards.
The admission policy of medical schools is decided by individual educational institutions, said Dr. H.D.B. Herath, SLMC Registrar. However, there is a legally enforceable regulation specifying the minimum standards for medical education.
The conditions contained in the regulation must be met. It is on this basis that SLMC’s Accreditation Unit evaluates and monitors each school, Dr. Herath explained.
The SLMC accredited the KDU Medical Faculty a few years ago after an assessment. Among the factors taken into consideration were the numbers and types of students to be accepted.
“We are continuing that accreditation on the assumption that they are adhering to their agreements with us,” Dr. Herath said. “If they change anything, they will have to inform us.”
KDU has not notified the SLMC of its latest decision. “It has to be communicated officially to the Medical Council,” Dr. Herath continued. “We cannot evaluate or make decisions on very vague situations, where we don’t know what happened. They will have to inform us in writing. We will give our decision based on that.”
The middle ground
There should be a middle ground between cadets and fee-levying students, said Dr. Surantha Perera, President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association: “There should be equal representation from both sides. How you develop a mechanism for it is up to the government.”
“The other Faculties are open, so why only close the Medical Faculty?” he also questioned. The KDU has Faculties of Engineering; Computing; Management, Social Sciences and Humanities; Law, Defence and Strategic Studies; Built Environment and Spatial Sciences; Technology; and Criminal Justice.
There is also a Faculty of Allied Health Science and KDU sources said there is fear “this will be next”. And if it is more extreme student unions that the Government pays heed to, those fears might be justified.
“It should definitely be done,” insisted Madushan Chandrajith, Convener of the Inter-University Students’ Federation, referring to the stopping of MBBS day scholars. “KDU was initially set up to educate cadet officers, not as a private institution.”
“It shouldn’t stop there,” he added. “Other degrees given by KDU to civilian students should also stop.”
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