How are university places allocated in Sri Lanka?

For every merit-and-district course (Commerce, all Science streams, Engineering and Biosystems Technology), the UGC splits the intake three ways: 40% on all-island merit by Z-score, 55% on a district basis shared among the 25 districts by population, and 5% reserved for 16 educationally disadvantaged districts. The three shares always add up to the full intake.

What is the 40 55 5 rule for university admission?

It is the UGC's fixed intake split. 40% of seats go to the highest Z-scores island-wide, 55% are distributed to the 25 administrative districts in proportion to each district's population, and the final 5% go only to students from the 16 educationally disadvantaged districts. Arts-stream courses are the exception — most use all-island merit only.

Which are the 16 educationally disadvantaged districts?

The UGC handbook lists these 16: Nuwara Eliya, Hambantota, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Badulla, Monaragala, Ratnapura. Students from these districts compete for the 55% district pool and additionally share the 5% EDD pool, so their district receives seats from two pools, not one.

How many seats does my district get for a course?

Enter the course intake and pick your district. The tool shows your district's share of the 55% pool (by population) plus any share of the 5% EDD pool, and adds them for a district total. Remember the 40% merit seats sit on top of this — anyone from any district can win those on Z-score.

Does district basis mean a lower Z-score than merit?

In practice, often yes. Because the 55% is shared by population, a smaller or less-competitive district can have a district cut-off Z-score below the all-island merit cut-off. This tool allocates seats, not cut-offs — for the actual Z-score thresholds use the Cut-Off Marks Finder linked below.

Why does a small course leave some districts with zero seats?

The district pool is an integer number of seats spread across 25 districts by population. When the pool is small (say 14 seats for a 25-seat course), the least-populous districts round down to zero district-basis seats. Their students still compete for the 40% merit pool and, if applicable, the 5% EDD pool.

What is the largest-remainder rounding method?

Population shares rarely land on whole seats, so each district first gets the floor of its share, then leftover seats go one-by-one to the districts with the biggest fractional remainders. This is the Hare method used in proportional allocation. It guarantees the district seats sum exactly to the pool — no seat is lost or invented.

Is this the official seat count for a specific course?

It applies the official 40/55/5 rule and population weights, but each course's exact intake and any historical floor guarantees are gazetted by the UGC per cycle. Use this to understand the allocation and estimate district seats; confirm the final numbers in the UGC handbook and admission gazette for your year.

When were these figures last verified?

The 40/55/5 rule and the 16-district EDD list were checked against the UGC Student Handbook, Academic Year 2024/2025 (Section 1.1, pages 8–9) on 2026-07-08. District populations use the DCS Census of Population and Housing 2012. The page is reviewed when a new UGC handbook or census is published.

Sri Lanka · Education

Sri Lanka University District Quota Calculator

Enter a course intake and see exactly how the seats split under the UGC's 40% merit, 55% district-basis and 5% educationally-disadvantaged-district rule — with a seat count for every one of the 25 districts. Answers “how are university places allocated?”, not “did my Z-score clear the cut-off?”. No signup, sources cited.

By Induwara Ashinsana— Executive Director, Ryzera TechnologiesUpdated Jul 8, 2026

Allocate a course intake40 / 55 / 5 rule

UGC handbook 2024/25

Course intake (total seats)

Total places offered for the course this cycle (e.g. ~200 for medicine).

Your district (optional)

Highlights your district's seats and whether it is an EDD district.

Quick presets

Rounding

Merit seats (40%)

All-island Z-score rank

District-basis (55%)

110

Split across 25 districts

EDD seats (5%)

16 EDD districts only

Total intake

200

Merit + district + EDD

Merit: 80District: 110EDD: 10

Seats by district

District	District-basis	EDD	Total
Colombo	13	—	13
Gampaha	12	—	12
Kalutara	7	—	7
Kandy	7	—	7
Matale	3	—	3
Nuwara EliyaEDD	4	1	5
Galle	6	—	6
Matara	4	—	4
HambantotaEDD	3	1	4
JaffnaEDD	3	1	4
KilinochchiEDD	1	0	1
MannarEDD	1	0	1
VavuniyaEDD	1	0	1
MullaitivuEDD	0	0	0
BatticaloaEDD	3	1	4
AmparaEDD	3	1	4
TrincomaleeEDD	2	0	2
Kurunegala	9	—	9
PuttalamEDD	4	1	5
AnuradhapuraEDD	5	1	6
PolonnaruwaEDD	2	0	2
BadullaEDD	4	1	5
MonaragalaEDD	2	1	3
RatnapuraEDD	6	1	7
Kegalle	5	—	5
Total (district + EDD pools)	110	10	120

District-basis and EDD pools are population-weighted per the UGC handbook. The 40% merit seats are not shown per-district — they are won island-wide on Z-score, so a strong applicant from any district can take them.

Seat conservation verified — merit + district + EDD sum exactly to the intake, and the 25-district and 16-EDD tables sum exactly to their pools. Sources: UGC Student Handbook 2024/25, §1.1; DCS Census 2012 populations — cited in full below.

How it works

Sri Lanka fills most state-university courses — Commerce, the Biological and Physical Science streams, Engineering Technology, Biosystems Technology and the listed cross-stream courses — under a fixed intake split set by the University Grants Commission (UGC). Arts-stream courses are the main exception: most are filled purely on all-island merit. For the merit-and-district courses, the intake divides three ways:

40% — all-island merit. The top Z-scores across the whole country take these seats, regardless of district. This tool computes them as round(0.40 × intake).
55% — district basis.Allocated to the 25 administrative districts “in proportion to the total population of each district; that is on the ratio of the population of the district concerned to the total population of the country.” The pool is round(0.55 × intake), then divided by population share.
5% — educationally disadvantaged districts (EDD). Shared only among the 16 EDD districts, again by their population share within that group. The EDD pool is the residual intake − merit − district, which forces the three to sum exactly to the intake.

To turn a fractional population share into whole seats, the tool uses the largest-remainder (Hare) method: each district first gets the floor of its share, then the leftover seats are handed out one at a time to the districts with the largest fractional remainders. This guarantees the 25 district seats sum exactly to the district pool and the 16EDD seats sum exactly to the EDD pool — the same integer-allocation logic the handbook applies. A “simple round” alternative is offered for comparison; it rounds each district independently and absorbs any drift into the largest district.

Population weights come from the DCS Census of Population and Housing 2012: a national total of 20,359,439 across the 25 districts, of which 8,311,901 live in the 16EDD districts. Every figure is a cited constant in the tool's data module — there is no live data and no API call, so the same intake always yields the same allocation. What the tool does not do is rank candidates: it allocates seats, not Z-scores. To check whether a specific Z-score clears a cut-off, use the Cut-Off Marks Finder linked in the related tools below.

Worked examples

Intake 200 — a typical medicine batch

Merit (40%): round(0.40 × 200) = 80 seats
District pool (55%): round(0.55 × 200) = 110 seats
EDD pool (5%): 200 − 80 − 110 = 10 seats → 80 + 110 + 10 = 200 ✓
Colombo weight = 2,324,349 ÷ 20,359,439 = 11.42%
Colombo district-basis raw = 110 × 0.1142 = 12.56 → 12, +1 remainder = 13 seats
Colombo is not an EDD district → 0 EDD seats (13 district seats total)
The 10 EDD seats go one each to the 10 largest-remainder EDD districts

Intake 25 — a small course, showing zero-seat districts

Merit (40%): round(0.40 × 25) = 10 seats
District pool (55%): round(0.55 × 25) = round(13.75) = 14 seats
EDD pool (5%): 25 − 10 − 14 = 1 seat → 10 + 14 + 1 = 25 ✓
The single EDD seat → Ratnapura (largest EDD population, so largest remainder)
Only 12 districts win a district-basis seat; the 13 smallest round down to 0
Those students still compete for the 10 merit seats island-wide

Intake 1 — the edge case

Merit (40%): round(0.40 × 1) = 0 seats
District pool (55%): round(0.55 × 1) = 1 seat
EDD pool (5%): 1 − 0 − 1 = 0 seats → 0 + 1 + 0 = 1 ✓
A single-seat course is one district-basis seat, won by the top-remainder district

Frequently asked questions

Sources & references

The allocation rule, EDD district list and population weights were last cross-checked against these sources on 2026-07-08. The page is reviewed whenever the UGC publishes a new admissions handbook or the Department of Census & Statistics releases updated district populations.

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