Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Coordinates: 6°54′52″N 79°58′20″E / 6.91444°N 79.97222°E / 6.91444; 79.97222

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology
ශ්‍රී ලංකා තොරතුරු තා‌ක්ෂණ ආයතනය
Type Semi-Government Autonomous
Established 1999
Chancellor Prof L.L. Rathnayake[1]
President Prof Lalith Gamage
Academic staff
 100
Administrative staff
 100
Students 4,000
Undergraduates 3,600
Postgraduates 200
Other students
 200
Location Malabe, Sri Lanka
Campus Main campus (suburban): Malabe
Metropolitan campus (urban): Colombo
Colors Blue, white, orange
            
Affiliations University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka,
Association of Commonwealth Universities
Website www.sliit.lk

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (Sinhalese: ශ්‍රී ලංකා තොරතුරු තා‌ක්ෂණ ආයතනය) also known as SLIIT is a semi-government university[2][3][4] in Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1999. SLIIT is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and International Association of Universities.[1] It enrolls approximately 7000 undergraduate and graduate students.[1]

The university was established by the government of Sri Lanka.[4][5] It has two campuses and four centres. The main campus is in Malabe, 16 km from Colombo. It also has a metropolitan campus in Colombo, the island's largest city.

SLIIT is accredited as a degree awarding institute under the Universities Act of Sri Lanka.[6][7] SLIIT offers bachelor's and master's degrees in computing, business and engineering.

SLIIT is an internationally accredited university in the fields of Information Technology, Electronics and Management as well as a research university.[8]

History

Beginnings

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology was established in 1999 by an Act of Parliament in Sri Lanka, with ability to award degrees following amendments to the Universities Act the same year, thus gaining recognition from the University Grants Commission. It is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).

SLIIT was established primarily to educate and train information technology professionals. It became the first government-owned, fee-levying IT university in Sri Lanka.[9]

SLIIT is a government institution with initial funding from the government. The land for the Malable campus was given by the government. SLIIT was financially funded by Mahapola Higher Education Trust Fund and was aided by the ministries of International and Internal Commerce Affairs, Higher Education and by the Ministry of Finance & Planning.[10]

It is a statutory board and a company by guarantee.[11] SLIIT comes under the Ministry of Higher Education.[12] Unlike other state universities, it does not depend on government funding and therefore has a great deal of autonomy. In 2007 SLIIT began expanding into fields of study outside those of IT and computing. These include electronic engineering and business management in collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University.[13]

Since its conception, under the presidency and chancellorship of Professor Sam Karunaratne, it has become the leading degree-granting institute in Sri Lanka for information technology, producing 600 graduates annually.[14] SLIIT has expanded its IT education from Colombo and its suburbs to other parts of the country, including Kandy and Matara, making SLIIT accessible in six locations.

Expansions

SLIIT operates two campuses and four centres: the Malabe Campus at Malabe and the Metropolitan Campus at Kollupitiya, Colombo, the Kandy Centre at Kandy, the Jaffna Centre at Jaffna, the Kurunegala Centre at Kurunegala and the Matara Centre at Matara. This has been followed by planned expansion into Bangladesh[15] and enrolment of students from Africa and South Asia.[16] Since its inception SLIIT has produced over 50% of the professionals in Sri Lanka's IT and BPO industry, the fifth largest export earner in the country.[16]

Recent history

In 2011, SLIIT was accredited by UGC for awarding Bachelor of Business Administration degree and in 2013 for Bachelor of Science in Engineering under new faculties of business and engineering.[7] The same year SLIIT opened Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management to offer the Bachelor of Tourism and Hospitality Management degree offered by the William Angliss Institute Australia.[17]

SLIIT opened a new expansion, SLIIT Computing, in Kollupitiya to further expand undergraduate studies.

In 2014, Professor L. Rathnayake was appointed as the vice-chancellor.[1]

Campuses

Malabe Campus

Malabe Campus.

The Malabe campus covers an area over 25 acres and is the largest SLIIT campuses. This is the flagship campus. Malabe is home to the faculties of Computing, Business & Engineering. It is between Kaduwela and Malabe towns along the New Kandy Road. This campus is well known for its eye catching building complex. Malabe campus houses lecture theaters, research facilities, auditorium, restaurants, gymnasiums and the main library of SLIIT. This campus also has sporting facilities.

Metropolitan Campus

The metropolitan campus is in Kollupitiya. Mainly postgraduate programs and some undergraduate programs are conducted in this campus.

Regional centers

SLIIT has regional expansions out of Western Province in Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and Kurunegala. These regional centers have facilities for undergraduate studies.

Academic profile

Faculty of Engineering at SLIIT.

Faculties

SLIIT is divided into four faculties: Computing, Business, Engineering and Graduate Studies.

Faculty of Computing

Faculty of Computing.

Faculty of Computing is the most demanded and largest faculty of SLIIT. It was started in 1999 to produce IT professionals for the nation. This faculty offers Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in over five disciplines. This faculty comprises three departments.

Faculty of Business

The faculty of business at SLIIT offers the Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Capital Management, Accounting and Finance, Marketing Management, Quality management, Management Information Systems. This faculty has two departments.

Faculty of Engineering

Faculty of Engineering at SLIIT offers undergraduate degrees approved by the UGC. The faculty also conducts Engineering degrees and master's degrees from partner universities such as Curtin University (Australia) and Sheffield Hallam University (UK). There are several sub-departments. This faculty offers BSc. Engineering degrees in several disciplines. Sub-departments of this faculty are:

Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management

The CAHM is the first internationally recognized school for tourism and hospitality management in Sri Lanka. It was initiated in 2012. The project is a joint venture of SLIIT, Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management (CAHM),[18] and William Angliss Institute of Australia. It has been developed in line with international standards, housing a multi-use training kitchen, a full-scale banqueting facility, training restaurant, model bedrooms, an IT training center and team rooms for students’ practical training.[19]

SLIIT Computing

SLIIT Computing is a new subsidiary. This institute is in Kollupitiya. Bachelor of Science in Information Technology three-year program and some other undergraduate courses are conducted in this institute.

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Master of Science in Information Technology under several disciplines are conducted in this faculty.

Affiliations

SLIIT has built partnerships with Australian universities including Curtin University, Deakin University, Monash University, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of New Castle, University of South Australia, University of Tasmania, QUT, Swinburne University and William Angliss Institute.[20] These partnerships allow students to study for their degrees at SLIIT.

The partnership with Sheffield Hallam University in United Kingdom enables SLIIT to offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and degree transfer programs.[21] The University of British Columbia allows students to study for postgraduate degree from SLIIT.[22] Similar partnerships allow students to complete several semesters of study at SLIIT and to finish the degree work at the other universities.

Research

Lalith Athulathmudali Auditorium At SLIIT

SLIIT conducts IT and computer-related research and is a partner of ConceptNursery.com, Sri Lanka's technology incubator. The SLIIT Research Symposium, which is held annually, showcases and helps advance research in the IT field in Sri Lanka.[23]

Professional courses

SLIIT conducts the Cisco Network Academy courses (CCNA, CCNP and CCSP) under the only regional Cisco Network Academy in Sri Lanka. SLIIT is the only Microsoft Academy in Sri Lanka offering Certification Courses.[24]

Administration and staff

Administration

SLIIT is chartered as a non-profit organization[25] and comes under the Ministry of Higher Education & Highways[4] and is governed by appointed director board headed by the chairman.[26] SLIIT is an education institute overseen by Board of Investments (BOI).[27]

Key People

Library

SLIIT Library operates several branches at Colombo, Mathara and Malabe.[1]

Rankings

SLIIT is ranked at many instances within private institutes in Sri Lanka. The corresponding rankings within Sri Lanka are:

Publications Category 2013 2014 2015
Lanka Monthly DigestHigher Education[29]1-
Webometrics Ranking of World UniversitiesSri Lankan Universities[30][31]1199
Higher Education Institutes in Sri Lanka[28][32]-11

Extra Academic Activities

The Student's Interactive Society (SIS) is the main student body at SLIIT. The society organises student activities which includes the annual Freshers Night Dance, the Sports day and the Colours Night. Apart from the SIS there are the HEDRA which is the SLIIT programming community, the FOSS Community, the IT Students' Community (ITSC) which is the students' community of the Department of Information Technology, the CSNSC which is the student community of the CSN Department and the Drama & Arts Society and BIMS which is the student community of Business and Information management department student who follows Information Systems degree and Business Management degree.

Student organisations

Sport

SLIIT promote sports and recreational activities. Malabe campus has a range of sporting facilities used by students including Cricket, Rugby, Basketball, Netball, Volleyball, Tennis, Table tennis, Badminton, Chess and Carrom. SLIIT sporting teams compete in a range of local and national competitions.[1]

Vice-chancellors

Partner universities

The institute holds formal links with institutions from around the world to share teaching and research and facilitate staff and student exchanges.[33]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 2014/2015 Student Guide (PDF). Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "IT industry lacks quality degree programmes".
  3. ↑ Warushamana, Gamini. "Correct policy decisions vital to promote software industry, says don". Sunday Observer. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Wickramaratne, Kingsley T. "Sri Lanka's Cyber Village - Malabe SLIIT Campus". Daily News. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  5. ↑ Kulatunga, Ananda. "Higher Education and Economic Development in Sri Lanka". Lanka Monthly Digest. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  6. ↑ Universities Act of Sri Lanka
  7. 1 2 "THE UNIVERSITIES ACT, No. 16 OF 1978" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (1785/22). 21 November 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  8. ↑ "SLIIT Research Symposium to focus on making Sri Lanka".
  9. 1 2 Thilan Wijesinghe: Walking Tall
  10. ↑ Withana, Prabhath (23 September 2009). "ශ්‍රී ලංකා තොරතුරු තාක්‍ෂණ ආයතනයේ දස වැනි සංවත්සරය සමරයි" (in Sinhala). Retrieved 23 October 2015. zero width joiner character in |title= at position 3 (help)
  11. ↑ Statutory Boards, index.comlanka.com
  12. ↑ Institutes that recognized as degree awarding institutes by the Ministry of Higher Education
  13. ↑ SLIIT offers UK recognised BBA Degrees, ITpro.lk
  14. ↑ SLIIT produces 675 IT Graduates this year, Sundayobserver
  15. ↑ SLIIT expands network to Jaffna and Bangladesh
  16. 1 2 SLIIT enrols students from Asia and Africa for new intake
  17. 1 2 "History of SLIIT". Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  18. ↑ Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management
  19. ↑ "Globally recognised Hospitality Management degree now offered for the first time in Sri Lanka at SLIIT".
  20. ↑ Media release, Curtin University of Technology Archived 29 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  21. ↑ SLIIT-SHU partnership, Sheffield Hallam University http://www.shu.ac.uk/sliit/ SLIIT-SHU partnership, Sheffield Hallam University
  22. ↑ SLIIT Affiliations Archived 12 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  23. ↑ SLIIT Research Symposium, SLIIT
  24. ↑ Keynote Address to the hSenid 10th Anniversary Celebration, 22 March 2007, U.S. Embassy, Colombo
  25. ↑ "SLIIT not sold; it only returned MTF money". Sunday Times. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  26. ↑ "Government Notifications" (PDF). The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. 1933/13: 25A. 21 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  27. ↑ "Key Sectors For Investment - Knowledge Services". BOI Sri Lanka. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  28. 1 2 "Webometrics ranking of World Universities, picks SLIIT number one". Daily News. 6 April 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  29. ↑ "LMD ranks SLIIT No. 1 in Higher Education". Daily News. 12 December 2013.
  30. ↑ "Sri Lanka".
  31. ↑ "2013 July".
  32. ↑ "SLIIT ranked SL’s highest private educational institution in Webometrics 2015 Rankings". Daily FT. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  33. ↑ "Affiliated Universities". Retrieved 3 June 2015.

External links

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