BMS Campus fêtes 25

BMS Campus Founder and CEO Nizam Razzaq

BMS Campus President Dr. W.A. Wijewardena

• MoU signed between Singer Finance and BMS Campus for a special loan scheme
• Reveals vision to attract more regional students, highlighting Sri Lanka as an education hub

By Divya Thotawatte

BMS Campus recently marked a momentous milestone, celebrating 25 years in higher education, where its leadership shared visionary plans to expand the institution’s scope while contributing to elevating the status of Sri Lanka as an education hub.

The event, which celebrated the 25-year journey of the campus and its achievements, was held at the campus premises. BMS Campus has established itself as a leader in higher education, partnering with renowned British universities such as the University of Leicester, Teesside University, Edinburgh Napier University, and Northumbria University. These partnerships have allowed the institution to offer a range of globally recognised degree programmes in Management, Biomedical Science, Biotechnology, Food Science, and Technology, all at a fraction of the cost for both local and international students.

BMS Campus President Dr. W.A. Wijewardena said: “Our mission in the future is to reverse the student flow. Right now, the students are moving from Sri Lanka to neighbouring countries like India, Bangladesh, or Nepal, and even to the western countries. There has been a massive amount of foreign exchange that we have to spend every year to finance them. Our mission here at BMS Campus is to reverse this trend, and we have started it in a very small way. So, our future plan would be to expand the education system in Sri Lanka, which has been confined only to Sri Lanka to outside of Sri Lanka, so that we can set up Sri Lanka as one of the leading education hubs.”

He said that the institute was already attracting many students from the Maldives, India, and Pakistan, while BMS had also set up branches outside of the country. With the assistance and support through technical assistance, the teaching materials, etc., provided by the British universities the institute had been partnering with, the goal of BMS Campus was to attract students from the region by being a centre of excellence, Wijewardena explained.

He further stressed that BMS Campus paid much attention to maintaining the quality standards to be on par with the quality standards maintained by any British university. “Therefore, we have a very good opportunity to make Sri Lanka an education hub,” he highlighted.

BMS Campus Founding Director and CEO Nizam Razzaq said: “We try to go beyond being the best and to become a unique institution where you can serve the young people and also the busy people who want to qualify and gain new knowledge. We have voluntarily submitted ourselves in numerous ways for quality standards. Now our Biomedical program has been approved by the Institute of Biomedical Science of the UK. Our Biotechnology program is accredited by the Royal Society of Biology. All our business programmes from Northumbria University have been accredited by AACSB Accreditation, which recognises Northumbria University as being among the top 5% of business schools in the world.”

Razzaq said that while the university worked on courses, content, and curriculum that suited the current changes in the world, it also offered a program to support its graduates. “We are creating new professions for our people. We are introducing a master’s degree in cancer and molecular diagnostics this year. We also have already prepared an MBA in digital transformation. We also have a graduate support unit. If any of our graduates are not employed within three months, we’ll find them a job because we know that with all our career fairs, all our graduates are being well employed.”

As part of its support for students, the fête also included the signing of an MoU between Singer Finance and BMS Campus for a special loan scheme. Singer Finance Managing Director and CEO Thushan Amarasuriya expressed his interest in supporting students who could not afford to move abroad for higher education but who still wanted to educate and qualify themselves. He appreciated the opportunities BMS Campus provided its students to receive a quality education from their own country.

Pix by Lasantha Kumara