History of University Education in Sri Lanka

Since the 1970s, Sri Lanka’s higher education institutions have been facing a barrage of criticism. While access has been an underlying issue through the decades, in the more recent past the quality of university education provided and the quality of graduates produced have also come into question. Often the lack of resources in terms of funds and manpower, as well as the mis-match between the graduates produced and the skills required by the labour market are cited as key issues within the education sector. This literature review provides an overview of the history of university education in Sri Lanka and trends in graduates’ social mobility and other socio-economic indicators from the 1940s to 2014.