Since the assumption of office as the Minister of Higher Education of the Government led by His Excellency the president,Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha, I was of the opinion that higher education, in the contest of the current developments in Sri Lanka, is of paramount importance for economic and social development. This collection of speeches amply demonstrate my commitment to the need to formulate a development-oriented higher education policy. Sri Lanka, which, in my view, has the best human resource base built on the basis of a popularly accepted social demand model of education.