The World Bank has granted US$100 million financial support towards improving Sri Lanka’s Higher education sector with an objective of giving the country an Upper Middle Income Country status. This new initiative will help increase enrolment in priority disciplines, develop the quality of degree programs, and encourage research and innovation in the sector.

The World Bank together with the Sri Lankan government will work towards improving competitiveness and growth in the country and look to creating highly skilled professionals who can contribute towards a sustainable economic development of the country; an integral part of developing the Sri Lankan higher education sector.

The new ‘Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD)’ operation is the first project in Sri Lanka to use the World Bank Program for Results lending instrument to focus on building institutional competencies to drive for sustainable development outcomes. The key focus of this project is to empower the universities to develop modern teaching-learning and assessment approaches to increase the academic quality of undergraduate degree programs.

The national level implementing partners include The Ministry of Higher Education and Highways, the University Grants Commission, and Sri Lanka Institute of Advanced Technological Education while Institutional level implementing partners will include public sector universities, Advanced Technological Institutes and non-state Higher Education Institutions. Over its 6-year implementation period, which ends in 2023, approximately 600,000 students from a variety of higher education institutions, and 5,000 academics, managers, and technical staff will benefit directly from this program.  

Highlighting an important development in the higher education sector, the Ministry of Higher Education has announced plans to allocate funds to non-state higher education institutes alongside state universities this year. These institutes accredited by the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Higher Education and Highways, will work alongside state universities to work towards uplifting the current higher education system in Sri Lanka.

If you wish to obtain further information on the latest developments in the Sri Lankan Higher Education sector, please write to Nishika Hassim - Manager Higher Education and Education Services and cc to siemsouthasia@britishcouncil.org