Page 150 - Open and Distance Education In Asia : Good Practice From AAOU Members

130 OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATON IN ASIA
Good Practices from AAOU Members

in 1991, which is still in place albeit necessary Figure 2
amendments being introduced over the years Location of Regional and Study Centres of the
to cater the new developments that took OUSL
place over time. As the existing ordinance
needs revisions to reflect the changes that
have taken place in the university and in
the higher education sector in the country
and the overseas, the university has now
recommended to the UGC that the existing
ordinance be replaced by a new one to cater
the new and future development of the
university.

The Regional Educational Services (RES) which
is the backbone of the University too was
established at the inception of the university,
with about thirteen (13) centres island-wide
situated mostly in the Government Technical
Colleges. From these modest beginnings,
by 1994 the university had expanded to
have four Regional Centres and a few Study
Centres in some of the provincial towns, Organizationally, the OUSL is fully owned by
mostly in its own buildings. Major expansion the state and comes under the purview of
of the Regional Educational Services took the University Grants Commission (UGC) of
place with the dawn of the new century Sri Lanka. Apart from the OUSL, there are
when permanent buildings were built in sixteen (16) other conventional universities
many of the Regional and Study Centres. In governed by the UGC. Even though all sixteen
the last decade, the university has further conventional universities are fully funded by
expanded its reach to the entire country the Government of Sri Lanka, in the case of
with nine (09) Regional Centres, one each in the OUSL, the Government partially funds
every province of Sri Lanka and nineteen (19) the university in the form of wages of all
Study Centres covering every district of the the permeant staff and required Capital
country. Currently the university has its own Grants for approved developments. The
permanent buildings in twenty-three (23) rest of the expenditure of the university is
of the centres. Five of the centres currently met through generated funds, of which the
operate in rented buildings, though the main contribution comes from the tuition fee
government authorities in those areas have charged from the students. Therefore, the
allocated lands for establishing permanent OUSL is the only fee-levying state university in
centres in the future. Figure 2 illustrates the Sri Lanka. However, as the substantial portion
locations of the Regional and Study centres. of the fund comes from the state (nearly 65%

The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL)