Oct 07, Colombo: The University Grants Commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka is looking at employing foreign lecturers for two proposed engineering faculties.

UGC Chairman Prof. Gamini Samaranayake has said the authorities were mulling to get lecturers from overseas including India to teach at two proposed faculties in state universities.

The UGC Chairman explained that two engineering faculties affiliated to the Jaffna and Eastern Universities are to be set up and the UGC is considering employing Indian faculty members for teaching in these two new faculties.

According to Prof. Samaranayake, lecturers would have to be employed from overseas since finding local lecturers for these two faculties would be difficult at the initial stage.

Nevertheless, the final authority on hiring foreign lecturers to state universities is not with the UGC and is a matter to be decided by the Cabinet of Ministers following relevant representations from the Higher Education Ministry, he said.