China awards 15 scholarships for Sri Lankan students

Friday, 29 July 2016 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Chinese Government awarded 15 scholarships for Sri Lankan students at a special ceremony at the Chinese Embassy recently. This year, five postgraduate and 10 undergraduate scholarships were granted in the fields of Science, Arts, Management, Medicine and Engineering.

“The Chinese Government not only supports infrastructure but at the same time we have a stronger support for education exchange. We will strengthen our corporation to invest more resources to promote higher education and professional education,” said People’s Republic of China Ambassador Yi Xianliang. He also added in the next year the Chinese Government will set up a technical college in Sri Lanka.

“The number of applications received is increasing every year,” said Ministry of Higher Education and Highways Secretary D.C. Dissanayake, expressing the high enthusiasm among the public for Chinese government scholarships. He also asserted that selection process was done in a fair and transparent manner to ensure the most suitable and qualified people among the applicants.

The Chinese higher education scholarship program has lighted the lives of a large number of Sri Lankans by providing higher education opportunities in prestigious Chinese universities. Dissanayake pointed out that given the limited space in the universities in the country these initiatives assist the Sri Lankan Government in reducing the burden of providing more access for students to pursue higher education in the country.

In addition to the foreign scholarships the Chinese Embassy also launched a new scholarship scheme named ‘Chinese Ambassador Scholarship’ which offered financial assistance to 50 undergraduates in Sri Lankan universities.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara