Financing of university education in Sri Lanka

Byline: Sunil Chandrasiri (1) Keywords: alternative funding sources; financing; revenue and cost structure; systems and procedures of resource allocation; unit costs Abstract: This paper deals with the financing ofuniversity education in Sri Lanka, which hasadopted pro-market policy reforms over the last22 years. The assessment is based on five maincriteria: adequacy, efficiency, unit costs,systems and procedures of resource allocationand alternative funding sources. The findingsreveal that the universities are faced with anacute shortage of funds and that existingfinancial systems and procedures are controloriented rather than promoting efficiency andquality enhancement. Moreover, the heavilystate dependent university system, particularlyin the area of financing, has failed to keeppace with pro-market policy reforms at nationallevel and, hence, continues to operate within acontrol oriented regulatory framework. In thepresent era of globalization, universities needto be more market oriented in terms ofmanagement, delivery of services and revenuegeneration. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Economics, University of Colombo, Colombo 3, Sri Lanka e-mail Article History: Registration Date: 11/10/2004