Chandra Embuldeniya, founder Vice Chancellor of Uva to bid farewell

Tuesday, 19 July 2011 00:46 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

(Asiantribune.com): The founder Vice Chancellor of Uva Wellassa University, Chandra Embuldeniya will bid farewell after completing his term of office in July after six years of pioneering service to establish this university and develop it as a centre of excellence for value addition to the national resources base.

Chandra Embuldeniya is the first person from the private sector to have been invited by the government to start a national university. He came with experience gained as a CEO holding many senior managerial positions in leading firms in Sri Lanka as well as overseas. He was also the President of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka and Chair the BIMSTEC Chamber of Commerce and Industry for seven countries of the region.

He started in 2004 with an invitation from the government to coordinate setting up of the University in Uva Province along with a small team of five members.

He was invited to become the Vice Chancellor in 2005 and was reappointed by the President in 2008.

He commenced this work by identifying the site in Badulla, developing the master plan, developing the degree programs, recruiting staff and training them, developing the designs with the architects CECB, conducting the Aptitudes for student intakes with the Commissioner General of Exams and building the university to conduct studies for the students. This year the University will be hosting over 2100 students following eleven degree programs.

Uva Wellassa University holds a record as the only one to have not had strikes or agitations from students, academic staff or other employees since inception. The students take a shared responsibility with the staff to uphold the values of this university as a centre of excellence for value addition.

The degree programs are unique to this university and cover valuable resource areas such as tea, latex, palm, minerals, aquatics, exports, entrepreneurship, management, science and technology, computer science, information technology, tourism, hospitality and events management.

The uniqueness of these programs arises from the interdisciplinary nature of the courses and driven by course directors and course committees focusing on the market needs.

There is considerable demand from the private sector for the graduates as they are trained with essential skills and broad general knowledge required for self development and leadership roles.

He is planning to establish two leading British universities at their invitation in Sri Lanka and will strongly support the national endeavor to become the hub of knowledge and higher education of the Asian region.