The University Grants Commission (UGC) will introduce new conditions for lecturers travelling overseas for foreign education purposes in a bid to ensure that they return to their original universities. UGC Chairman Kapila Seneviratne told Education Times that among the conditions would be that the university or institute to which the lecturer is visiting should enter into a memorandum of understanding with the UGC, that he or she would return to Sri Lanka after completing the term of education. The UGC will enter into the bond with the lecturer based on the response from the institute or university overseas.

The bursary too would be released accordingly. The chairman said they would also investigate the possibilities of completing further education in other countries rather than selecting European universities and institutions. Timesonline learns that the moves have been made as several lecturers have overstayed in the respective countries after completing their studies. The UGC chairman said some of them have overstayed due to economic reasons. Over the years, the monitoring process of those travelling for overseas education has been slack, he said. There has also been no system of recovering money from those who violate the bonds. He said that having a system of control on those travelling overseas would be useful to maintain administration at the local universities. Meanwhile, universities are experiencing difficulties in maintaining administrative activities due to the shortage of lecturers. (DWI)