• Query quality standards per existing facilities at said Uni, note Defence Min. involvement as opposed to Edu. Min./UGC 

Following the Cabinet of Ministers granting approval for the admission of local students for the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree programme at the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), starting this year (2024), the Medical Faculty Students’ Action Committee (MFSAC) denounced the Cabinet’s decision, claiming that it will be difficult to maintain the quality and standards of medical education as gazetted in 2018, with the existing facilities of the said University. 

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (15), the MFSAC Convenor Dithira Wellappuli said that the Government will have to allocate a large amount of money and resources to standardise the KDU Medical Faculty if they wish to enrol local students, which could be allocated to uplift the medical education of State universities. He also said that regulating the quality and standards of the said University will be problematic unlike the medical faculties under the purview of the Education Ministry, since it is under the Defence Ministry. Wellappuli further stated that there will be a possibility of admitting students who are backed by political and military connections instead of the required educational qualifications. He also said that the entire University is controlled according to a military structure and that it has failed to maintain the requirements and conditions implemented by the regulations issued in 2018 regarding the minimum standards of medical education. Therefore, the MFSAC urged the Government not to take decisions to establish medical faculties in institutions that are not regulated by the University Grants Commission.

According to Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardana, admissions will be carried out on a payment basis and based on ‘Z’ scores at the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level and other specified qualifications. The Faculty of Medicine of the University was established in 2011 to train cadet officers as medical professionals and award the MBBS degree as per the service requirements of the armed services. Accordingly, the University currently grants the opportunity for local students who join the armed forces or the Police as cadets and qualified foreign students only, to pursue a medical degree, on a payment basis. The proposal to allow the admission of local students selected through a set of criteria, for the MBBS degree programme at the University under a payment basis, was presented to the Cabinet of Ministers by President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Secretary to the Defence Ministry, General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne and the Dean of the KDU Medical Faculty, Prof. Aindralal Balasuriya were unavailable for comment.