The University of Moratuwa (also referred as Moratuwa University) (Sinhala: මොරටුව විශ්වවිද්යාලයMoraṭuwa Wiśwawidyālaya, Tamil: மொறட்டுவைப் பல்கலைக்கழகம்[4]) is a public university in Sri Lanka. It is located on the bank of the Bolgoda Lake in Katubedda, Moratuwa, a suburb of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo.
Apart from academics including undergraduate and postgraduate studies, the University of Moratuwa presents social and cultural activities, student services, societies,[5] and sports and recreational activities.[6] The institution was known as Ceylon College of Technology, Katubedda (Katubedda Tech) before gaining university status. Its roots go back to the Institute of Practical Technology founded in 1960 to provide technical education.
History
The University of Moratuwa is an independent state university in Katubedda, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka overlooking Bolgoda Lake. It was established as the University of Moratuwa (UoM), Sri Lanka on 22 December 1978 under the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978 and operates under the general direction of the University Grants Commission. Its origin can be traced to the Government Technical College (GTC) which was established in Maradana, Colombo in 1893.[7]
The Ceylon Technical College, Katubedda was established in 1966 offering the Diploma in Technology, it gained University status, as the Katubedda Campus of the single University of Ceylon, on 15 February 1972. The Department of Architecture, then at Colombo, was transferred to Katubedda in the formation of this new campus. The Katubedda Campus thus began with one faculty, that of Engineering and Architecture. The first president was Dr. LH Sumanadasa who steered the progress of the institution and was the principal of the IPT before it became the Katubedda Campus. When Ceylon became a Republic on 22 May 1972, the corporate name of the university was changed to the University of Sri Lanka.
In 1978, it gained the Independent University Status under Universities Act No. 16 of 1978.[8]
Students from the University of Moratuwa have participated in Google Summer of Code from 2007 to 2011,[9][10][11]Imagine Cup Sri Lanka,[12] and IEEEXtreme Competition.[13][14] In the Google Summer of Code, University of Moratuwa was ranked as the top university worldwide in the number of awards received by students for the five-year period from its inception in 2005.[9]
The University of Moratuwa won the Microsoft Imagine Cup Sri Lankan Software Design Finals in five out of eight occasions, including 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012. In addition to this, the university regularly participates in the world stage of competitions such as the CFA Institute Research Challenge and the CIMA Global Business Challenge.[15]
Organisation and administration
Academic entities
Faculty of Architecture
The Faculty of Architecture is the only seat of education in Sri Lanka offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Architecture, Town and Country Planning, Facilities Management and Quantity Surveying. They contain 5 departments: the department of Architecture, Building Economics, Integrated Design, Town & Country Planning, and Facilities Management. The divisions and units of the Faculty are the Undergraduate Studies Division, the Postgraduate Studies Division, Faculty of Architecture Research Unit (FARU), and the Faculty of Architecture Quality Assurance Cell. The divisions and units above provide training and research for academics and professionals. [16]
The Faculty of Architecture offers six Honours Degrees:
Bachelor of Architecture
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture
Bachelor of Design
Bachelor of Science in Quantity Surveying
Bachelor of Science in Facilities Management
Bachelor of Science in Town & Country Planning[17]
The Faculty also offers eight Postgraduate degrees:
MSc/PG Diploma in Interior Design
MSc in Landscape Design
MSc in Architectural Conservation of Monuments and Sites (ACOMAS)
Master of Urban Design
MSc in Project Management
MSc/PG Diploma in Construction Law and Dispute Resolution
MSc in Occupational Safety and Health Management
MSc in Spatial Planning, Management and Design
Faculty of Engineering
It is the largest faculty in the University of Moratuwa, comprising eleven academic departments, over 200 academic staff and around 4000 undergraduate and thousands of post-graduate students. The faculty offers the Bachelor of the Science of Engineering in ten disciplines, and the Bachelor of Design in Fashion Design and Product Development. In addition, the Faculty offers a large number of post-graduate degrees in varied engineering and allied disciplines.[18]
Department of Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Department of Textile & Clothing Technology
Department of Transport & Logistics
The following departments do not have dedicated students; they support the academic activities of other departments by offering subjects to engineering undergraduates from all fields.
Department of Mathematics
The divisions and units at the Faculty of Engineering are
The Faculty of Information Technology was established in June 2001 to address the widening gap in the supply of IT professionals.[20] The undergraduate program in IT is limited to a number of students. It was planning to expand the undergraduate intake tenfold when the necessary infrastructure facilities are established by 2005.[20] Further, the faculty has started a postgraduate program in IT from early 2004 and a few continuing professional development programs addressing the immediate needs of the local IT industry.
The Faculty of Information Technology offers two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees which are
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and Management
MSc. in Information Technology
MSc. in Artificial Intelligence
The Departments at the Faculty of Information Technology are
Department of Information Technology
Department of Computational Mathematics
Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
Faculty of Graduate Studies
The Faculty of Graduate Studies was established in June 2016 to enhance the postgraduate research culture in the university.[21]
Faculty of Business
The Faculty of Business was established in June 2017. The business faculty at the University of Moratuwa will be offering undergraduate degree programs in Business Science.[22]
Faculty of Medicine
The Faculty of Medicine was established in 2020 as the eleventh Faculty of Medicine in the country. It is the only Faculty in the country to have a Department of Medical Technology. The Teaching Hospital Kalutara is the official teaching hospital for the Faculty of Medicine.
The departments at faculty of Medicine include:
Department of Anatomy
Department of Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry
Department of Physiology
Department of Pharmacology
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology
Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine
The Institute of Technology was founded as the Ceylon College of Technology in Moratuwa in 1966 with the technical assistance of UNESCO. The CCT commenced with specialisations in Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, initially utilising the physical facilities available at the IPT. In 2000, the Institute of Technology was established to conduct the National Diploma in Technology course separately from the Faculty of Engineering, with the Ordinance for the same having been gazetted in August 2000.[24]
Other sections
Information Systems Division / MIS Unit
An Education Management Information System officially established around 2007, serves most of the information system related services including e-Learning, EMIS, DMS and ERP for all of the university.
Center for Information Technology Services (CITeS)
CITeS is responsible for the University IT Infrastructure, which includes administration of university network backbone, general server administration and maintenance of common computing facilities. CITeS is currently running the Cisco Networking Center.
Chancellor is the head of the university and is responsible for awarding all the academic degrees. Usually, the chancellor is a distinguished person in an academic discipline. Otherwise, it is a distinguished person or a clergy in the civil society. The appointment is done by the head of the state, the President of Sri Lanka. The position is mainly ceremonial and duties are usually carried out by the vice chancellor. The current chancellor of the university is Professor Monte Cassim.[26][27]
The vice-chancellor is the principal academic and administrative officer of the university, responsible for the management tasks. This appointment is also done by the President of Sri Lanka. The vice-chancellor of the university is Prof. N.D. Gunawardena.
Deans are the heads of the faculties. They are responsible for the management and the tasks carried out by the faculty. Deans are appointed by the chancellor for three years.
Dean Faculty of Architecture: Professor Y. J. Sadanayake
Dean Faculty of Engineering: Professor K. T. M. U. Hemapala
Dean Faculty of Information Technology: B. H. Sudantha,[28] BSc (Hons), MPhil
Dean Faculty of Graduate Studies: Professor Ajith De Alwis
Dean Faculty of Business: Professor G. D. Samarasinghe.
Students at the University of Moratuwa run over 25 clubs and organisations. These include cultural and religious groups, academic clubs and common-interest organisations. The University Students' Union is considered the highest body which represents all internal students of the university.[5] Separate student unions operate in each faculty.
Sports and recreation
The Department of Physical Education[30] caters to the student population of the university in sports. The department gives the students sports facilities in two ways:
Students who wish to play games only for fun and those who wish to use the facilities for fitness may use the power room, swimming, weightlifting room, common room for table tennis, carom and chess and the gymnasium to play badminton.[30]
The department conducts a regular programme for 18 sports: athletics, badminton, basketball, carom, chess, cricket, elle, football, karate, netball, rowing, rugby football, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling. The department gives the facilities necessary for these sports and supplies qualified coaches for most of the games. The aim in this regular programme is to participate in the annual inter-university and national championships.[30]
