Welcome to University of Kelaniya

The University of Kelaniya is committed to provide high quality education and to conduct high impact research which will contribute significantly to the enhancement of existing knowledge in various fields of Humanities, Medicine, Science, Social Sciences, Commerce & Management and to the development of the country.

Vision
To become a centre of excellence in creation and dissemination of knowledge for sustainable development.

Mission
To nurture intellectual citizens through creativity and innovation, who contribute to the national development.

History

1.The University of Kelaniya has its origin in the historic Vidyalankara Pirivena, founded in 1875 by Ratmalane Sri Dharmaloka Thera as a centre of learning for Buddhist monks.

2.With the establishment of modern universities in Sri Lanka in the 1940s and 1950s, the Vidyalankara Pirivena became the Vidyalankara University in 1959, later the Vidyalankara Campus of the University of Ceylon in 1972, and, ultimately, the University of Kelaniya in 1978.

3.The University of Kelaniya has pioneered a number of new developments in higher education.

4.It was one of the first universities to begin teaching science in Sinhala and the first to restructure the traditional Arts Faculty into three faculties: Humanities, Social Sciences, and Commerce and Management.

5.It has several departments not generally found in the Sri Lankan University system and some Kelaniya innovations have been adopted subsequently by other universities.

6.These include the Departments of Industrial Management and Microbiology in the Faculty of Science; Departments of Linguistics, Fine Arts, Modern Languages and Hindi in the Faculty of Humanities; and Mass Communication and Library and Information Sciences in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Faculties

Faculty of science

The faculty was housed in the main building known as the “Science Block”. Due to the continued increase in the student intake from year to year, a new lecture theatre complex and an auditorium were constructed in 1992, which enabled the intake of students to be increased to 450 in 2003. A new laboratory complex for the Chemistry Department and three buildings for the Departments for Industrial Management, Microbiology and Zoology have now been completed.

The faculty was the first among the Sri Lankan universities to initiate the changeover from the traditional three subject (General) degree with end of year examinations to a more flexible course unit system, i.e., a modularized credit-based system in a two-semester academic year with the end of semester examinations. It offers a variety of course pathways designed to provide flexibility in the choice of subjects. Under this system students have the option of reading for a traditional three subject degree or for a degree consisting of two principal subjects and a selection of course units drawn from other subject areas. The B.Sc. (Special) degree courses, begun in 1974, adopted the course unit system in 1986

Faculty of MedicineEdit

The Faculty of Medicine of the University of Kelaniya is on a 35-acre (140,000 m²) campus at Ragama.^[1] It is one of eight medical schools in Sri Lanka. The faculty began classes with the admission of 120 students in September 1991 after the government, in 1989, nationalised the North Colombo Medical College (NCMC), the first privately funded medical school in Sri Lanka established in 1980. The first batch of students, of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya completed their five-year course and graduated MBBS in September 1996. Prof. Carlo Fonseka was the first dean of the faculty. Subsequent deans were Prof. Janaka de Silva and Prof. Rajitha Wickremasinghe. The current dean is Prof. Nilanthi de Silva.

The faculty now has over 1,000 medical students. This number includes international students, mainly from other South Asian countries, who have been admitted on a fee-levying basis. The faculty also welcomes students for elective appointments. Students from medical schools in Europe, USA and Australia have spent their elective periods with the university. In addition to the MBBS course, it conducts a BSc programme in speech and hearing sciences.

There is a permanent academic staff of over 120 and in addition 40 temporary academic staff and over 60 visiting staff that includes consultants who are based in the affiliated teaching hospitals.

Faculty of Social ScienceEdit

The Faculty of Social Sciences, in student population, is the largest faculty in the University of Kelaniya.

Department of Library and Information ScienceEdit

Faculty of HumanitiesEdit

The faculty includes disciplines associated with Buddhist and Asian cultures, such as Pali and Buddhist Studies, Sinhala, Tamil, Sanskrit, Hindi, Japanese and Chinese, while teaching courses in modern European languages such as English, French, German and Russian.

Faculty of Commerce and ManagementEdit

The faculty consists of four departments:

Department of Commerce
Department of Accountancy
Department of Marketing Management
Department of Human Resource Management
Department of Finance

Department of commerce was the first to establish and contribute lots of talented graduates to the industry. BCOM degree is unique to Department of Commerce. Department provides special degree in Financial Management(BCOM (special) Degree in Financial management), Business technology(BCOM (special) Degree in Business Technology), Entrepreneurship(BCOM (special) Degree in Entrepreneurship) and Commerce(BCOM (special) Degree in Commerce).

Faculty of Graduate StudiesEdit

Twenty-three postgraduate degree programmes and six postgraduate diploma programmes are coordinated by the Faculty of Graduates Studies.

Postgraduate diplomasEdit

Regional Planning
Information Technology
Industrial and Business Management
Environmental Management
Mathematics
Human Resource Management

Postgraduate degreesEdit

M.A. in Sinhala
M.A. in Linguistics
M.A. in Drama and Theatre
M. S. Sc. in Mass Communication
M. S. Sc. in Sociology
M. S. Sc. in Geography
M. S. Sc. in Library Science
M. S. Sc. in Economics
M. S. Sc. in Political Science
M. S. Sc. in History
M. S. Sc. in Philosophy
M. Sc. in Applied Microbiology
M. Sc. in Food and Nutrition
M. Sc. in Aquaculture and Fisheries Management
M. Sc. in Biodiversity and Integrated Environmental Management
M. Sc. in Industrial and Environment Chemistry
M. Sc. in Management and Information Technology
M. Sc. in Computer Science
Master of Commerce
Master of Business Management
Master of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Medicine

Information and Communication Technology CentreEdit

The ICT Centre provides support services in IT-related teaching, research, internet services, staff development and hardware maintenance for the entire university. It conducts a computer literacy course open to all students and advanced courses in Visual Basic, web designing and hardware technology for the students who have successfully completed the computer literacy course.The maintenance unit provides network, hardware and software support to the clients in the university, and IT solutions for academic departments and administrative branches of the university. Video filming of special events of the university since 2005 is an additional service.

Currently the ICT Centre hosts web and mail services for all student and staff. They have a university wide wifi network called "Kelani-WiFi". The ICT Centre is the first institutional Sri Lankan member of Eduroam.