Both International & National norms require that persons with disabilities are provided with special facilities in order to help them pursue their education on equal terms with persons without disabilities. National Universities in Sri Lanka admit a limited number of students with disabilities (SWDs) from among those who satisfy the minimum requirements for University admission under the category of ‘special intake’. The total such number of students enrolled in national universities is small compared to overall enrolment. While these students are, by the very nature of their disabilities, denied easy access to many of the programmes and facilities offered by the Universities, whatever special measures that have been taken to put them on equal terms with others in carrying out their study programmes at the University are far from adequate. They follow the courses without any special teaching methods or aids and experience many difficulties including nonexistence of wheelchair access to buildings, lack of information and suitable reading material, and appropriate accommodation, absence of special teaching methods, learning strategies and assessment methods. This contributes to low grades in examinations, inability to participate in internships, poor interaction with fellow students and disadvantages in job opportunities. In this context, we believe that promoting and developing access to inclusive education should be given priority in order to treat the SWDs without discrimination and to protect their rights. The aim of this project is the inclusion of SWDs in the higher educational institutes of Sri Lanka by accommodating and adapting suitable environments for them. The project has number of specific objectives of creating community awareness, developing competency of staff of the partner universities in Sri Lanka, establishing conducive learning environment for students with disabilities.

Currently, a number of programmes are in place in Sri Lankan universities to improve quality in the higher education sector. Due to limited resources and financial austerity, however, very few of them pay attention to improving the qualifications and skills of non-academic staff. This capacity-building project addresses this issue. It is a joint initiative of 6 Sri Lankan universities, 4 EU universities and one non-academic partner. The University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Higher Education have joined as associated partners. The project’s overall objective is to enhance the governance, management and operation of universities in Sri Lanka by building the knowledge and skills of non-academic staff, in view of enhancing organizational performance and supporting current and future modernization efforts and reforms in higher education. The specific objectives are:1.To enhance Sri Lankan Universities’ knowledge and good practices base in key areas of governance and management2.To improve through training and international exposure the knowledge, skills and attitudes of non-academic staff in the partner universities 3.To put in place institutional strategies and support structures in the partner universities, enabling a long-term commitment to the training and professional development of non-academic staff.4.To provide recommendations for actions applicable to the national higher education system and to inspire other universities to develop adequate plans for the professional development of their non-academic staff.Planned activities include:-development of training curriculum focused on university administration, internationalization in higher education, financial management and auditing, soft skills, Equality and Diversity-training of trainers in transnational format-local multiplication trainings (for around 180 non-academic staff)-creation of Non-Academic Staff Development Cells-development of university strategies-dissemination activities

The TEAL2.O project is implemented by a consortium of 11 universities – 3 in Sri Lanka, 3 in India, 2 in Thailand, 3 in Europe, joined by a consultancy company. 1 higher education network in Sri Lanka and 6 PC Universities support us as associated partners. Improving access to Science and Technology (S&T) higher education is top priority in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Increasing Gross Enrollment Ratios and reaching underrepresented and disadvantaged groups requires investing serious effort into Open and Distance Learning (ODL). Yet, ODL and increased access, especially in resource-poor institutions, pose many quality-related challenges resulting from shortages of expertise, technological equipment, collaboration and internationalization. We aim to contribute to addressing these challenges and facilitate access to higher education through a comprehensive technological solution. We will develop and deploy an open-access platform for technology-enabled learning environment that will enable the design and delivery of quality ODL in S&T higher education. The TEAL2.O platform will have the following benefits:- modularity and full customizability, allowing institutions and faculty to design programs and develop teaching content that suit local needs and constraints, including those of underrepresented learners- unlimited possibilities for collaborative learning and teaching, allowing institutions to pool available expertise and support quality- learner-centred education, flexible learning pathways and co-creation on the part of learners- open source hardware and software integrated into the learning process to maximize learners’ exposure to technology and provide access to virtual labs and experimentationWe will train staff, faculty and students to use and develop the platform, and will establish 8 university Centres to provide user support and promote the exploitation of TEAL2.O, in the long run helping it to grow into a self-sustainable learning network.

Because of globalization, standardization leading to accreditation of academic programs has become an increasingly dominant theme in higher education. In order to achieve it, there are various challenges faced by Asian partner country Higher Education Institutions, which resulted in creating the motivation towards undertaking this project. The partner countries face the challenge of strong competition with international institutions because of the easy and wide access to higher education abroad. The institutions can not delay any further to address it, otherwise they risk the severe issues of comparability of quality of education locally and abroad, and other issues relating to recognition of qualification. Moreover, the increased proportion of students entering university-level education has increased the complexity of higher education systems across the entire partner countries, thereby also giving rise to the need of standardization and accreditation. In spite of huge student population in Asia, unfortunately very few universities from Asia are seen in good positions in global world ranking of universities.