Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Rajarata University of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජරට විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, Tamil: இலங்கை ரஜரட்ட பல்கலைக்கழகம், abbreviated RUSL) is a public university located in the historic city of Mihintale, near Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. The Rajarata University of Sri Lanka was established as the eleventh University in Sri Lanka and was opened on 31 January 1996 by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

Over the years, the university has developed to become a centre of excellence in higher education in the North Central Province as well as in Sri Lanka. The academic programs of the RUSL are offered by six faculties namely; Technology, Agriculture, Applied Sciences, Management Studies, Medicine and Allied Sciences and Social Sciences and Humanities. The main administrative complex, the Faculties of Applied Sciences, Technology, Management Studies and Social Sciences and Humanities are located at Mihintale while the Faculty of Agriculture and Faculty of Medicine Allied Sciences are located at Puliyankulama and Saliyapura, respectively.

History

Rajarata University was established as the eleventh National University in Sri Lanka and was opened on 31 January 1996 by President Chandrika Bandaranayake, in accordance with the Gazette Notification 896/2 and the University Act 16 of 1978.

The official opening ceremony was attended by Prime MinisterSirimavo Bandaranayake, Speaker Kiri Banda Ratnayake, Minister of Higher Education Richard Pathirana, Deputy Minister of Higher Education Wiswa Warnapala, Governor NCP Maithripala Senanayake, Chairman UGC Prof. Stanley Thilakaratne, the university's first vice chancellor Prof. W.I. Siriweera and the university's first chancellor, Jayantha Kelegama.

Having examined the social variables encountered by Sri Lanka in the two decades 1970 and 1980, the then government decided to establish affiliated university colleges to provide opportunities for higher education for youth who are qualified but deprived of university education. Consequently, affiliated university colleges were established in Makandura, Kuliyapitiya and Anuradhapura. Subsequently, on 7 November 1995, the affiliated universities were amalgamated and the affiliated university of Kuliyapitiya and Makandura were named as Wayamba Campus of Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.

At the inception, four faculties namely Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Management Studies, Faculty of Agriculture and Faculty of Applied Sciences were established and in the year 2006, the Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences was established as the fifth faculty of RUSL. The faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Management Studies and Faculty of Applied Sciences are located in the Mihintale premises while the Faculties of Agriculture and Medicine and Allied Sciences are situated in Puliyankulama and Saliyapura respectively.

In November 1995 the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka (RUSL) was established by the Gazette Notification No: 896/2 of 7 November 1995 in the administrative District of Anuradhapura. The Central Province Affiliated University College (CPAUC) in Polgolla, located 140 km from the main campus at Mihinthale, Anuradhapura was amalgamated to the RUSL as its Faculty of Applied Sciences (FASc). The immediate task of the FASc was to upgrade all the students of the CPAUC who had successfully completed their diploma requirements, to the graduate level. On this task the FASc was inaugurated on 10 January 1997 to commence the third-year degree programme with a batch of 102 students, who graduated in 1998. The first batch of students who were directly sent by the UGC to follow the degree programme was enrolled in November 1997.

Faculties

The university consists of six faculties, Technology, Applied Sciences, Agriculture, Management Studies, Medicine and Applied Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities

Faculty of Agriculture (FA)

Faculty of Agriculture (FA) offers B.Sc. Agriculture(Special) four-year degree in Agriculture

On the recommendation of the committee on affiliated University colleges (1994), nine Affiliated University colleges spread out in various provinces of the country were merged to form two National Universities, the Rajarata and the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka in 1996. The Affiliated University college of the North Western province which consisted of two academic sections namely; Home science and Nutrition and the Agriculture, originally affiliated with the University of Kelaniya and Peradeniya respectively, were merged to form the Wayamba Campus of the Rajarata University in terms of the provisions of the section 18 and 47(1) of the University act. No 16 of 1978 and campus board ordinance NO: 3 of 1995.

Two faculties were set up to form the Wayamba Campus namely, the faculty of Agricultural Science and the faculty of Applied Sciences, each with three departments of study.

The Faculty of Agricultural Sciences constituted the Department of plantation Management, Horticultural Sciences and Food Technology and Agricultural Engineering. A three-year general degree in Agricultural Science was offered.

Later in 1999, a committee was appointed to make recommendations to upgrade the Wayamba Campus to a fully-fledged university. Based on the recommendations of this committee the Wayamba University was established in August 1999. With that faculty of Agricultural Sciences taken over to the Wayamba University in 1999 and Rajarata University loses its Agriculture Faculty.

In the year 2001, a new Agriculture Faculty of the Rajarata University has incepted at Puliyankulama closes to ancient Anuradhapura and about ten kilometers away from Mihintale where administration building complex and other sister faculties were located. It was started at a renovated paddy store complex where the faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities was located earlier.

From the beginning, there were three departments:

Department of Agricultural Systems

Department of Plant Sciences.

Department of Agricultural Engineering and Soil Science

Department of Animal and food science.

A new curricular was designed with the objective of uplifting dry zone agriculture and awarded a BSc degree in agriculture, which is a four-year special degree.

The first batch of 17 students was recruited on 21 April 2001 under the patronage of the first dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Puliyankulama Prof. S.H. Upasena. From that two comprehensive curriculum revisions were carried out in 2003 and 2006. The total annual intake is 100 students today.

Library

The Main Library of Rajarata University is located in the Mihintale Premises and houses an extensive collection of books, journals, and other academic resources. The library has a seating capacity of more than 500 students and is equipped with modern facilities such as Wi-Fi, air conditioning, and comfortable seating areas.

The university library system consists of a main library and several branch libraries that are spread across the university’s different faculties such as Applied Science, Agriculture, Medicine & Allied Sciences, and Technology.

The university received subscriptions of the following databases for the online materials. Library users can access the database within the university premises.

• Emerald Insight
• Oxford Academic
• Taylor and Francis
• Hinari, AGORA, OARE, ARDI, GOALI

Эх сурвалж: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)