Brandix College CEO felicitated for prestigious appointment at RMIT
Tuesday, 20 August 2013 00:00
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Students of the Brandix College of Clothing Technology (BCCT) have felicitated the College’s CEO Dr. Rohana Kuruppu on becoming the first Sri Lankan to be appointed Adjunct Professor of the School of Fashion and Textiles of the RMIT University of Melbourne, Australia’s largest tertiary institution.
RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) collaborates with the Brandix College of Clothing Technology, where students undertake Bachelor of Applied Science (Textile Technology) degrees through the University’s School of Fashion and Textiles.
Adjunct Professor Rohana Kuruppu will continue to head the BCCT during his three year appointment with RMIT and be responsible for teaching more than a third of the RMIT degree program the College offers students in Sri Lanka.
The RMIT undergraduates who organised the felicitation ceremony at the Mt. Lavinia Hotel belong to the 12th batch prepared for the degree program by BCCT, which began offering the degree, one of the world’s most respected in the sphere of textile and clothing, in 2006.
“The Adjunct Professor position conferred by the RMIT University is an acknowledgement by one of the world’s top universities in technology and design, of the academic calibre of the recipient,” said Brandix Chief People Officer Ishan Dantanarayana, who represented the Group at the ceremony. “Professor Kuruppu’s achievement brings honour not just to the Brandix Group and his many students, but to the country’s academic community in general.”
As Adjunct Professor of RMIT University’s School of Fashion and Textiles, Prof. Kuruppu will work with the textile scientists and academics of the School’s Advanced Materials Laboratory on cutting edge research into the latest materials in the sphere of woven fabrics and contribute to the global textile industry’s knowledge in this area.
Professor Kuruppu, who was appointed CEO of the Brandix College of Clothing Technology in 1996, is the Chairman of the Sri Lanka section at the Textile Institute, UK, and has been a key figure in the evolution of Sri Lanka’s textile and apparel industry over the past three decades.
A Doctor of Technology (honoris cousa) of the Open University of Sri Lanka and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) of RMIT University, he has graduate and postgraduate degrees in textile technology and clothing from the Universities of Derby, the Manchester Metropolitan University, and the University of Strathclyde, UK. The founder director of the Clothing Industry Training Institute (CITI) in Ratmalana, he is a member of the editorial board of the Textile Institute’s journal ‘Textile Progress’ and has over 50 publications and presentations to his credit.
The Brandix College of Clothing Technology was established under the aegis of the Board of Investment (BOI) in September 1996. Its objective is to build the future innovators and leaders who aspire to careers in clothing and those who are already employed in the apparel industry. The College started two major streams of training programs, Industry Oriented Training for school leavers and Industry Based Training for people who are already employed. The Brandix College pioneered Enterprise Based Training (EBT) Centres in the clothing industry to focus on enterprise training needs.
A global university of technology and design, RMIT has a history that dates back to 1887 and has three campuses in Melbourne, Australia, and two in Vietnam. The University’s student population of 74,000 includes 30,000 international students, of whom more than 17,000 are taught offshore.
