University of Colombo
University of Ceylon, Colombo Campus[edit]
The announcement of the creation of a separate university in Colombo was made in Parliament in the Throne Speech of 1967. The necessary legislation for this purpose had been prepared by the Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs under section 34 of the Higher Education Act No. 20 of 1966 on the recommendation of the National Council of Higher Education. The new institution, which came into existence on 1 October 1967 with the Colombo Campus as its nucleus, had a student population of nearly 5000 reading for degrees in Arts, Law, the Sciences and Medicine and a teaching staff of nearly 300.
The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, which replaced the Higher Education Act of 1966 altered the university structure. The four independent autonomous universities (University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, University of Ceylon, Colombo, Vidyodaya University and Vidyalankara University) which had been set up by then and the Ceylon College of Technology at Katubedda became campuses of a single university styled the University of Sri Lanka. Its headquarters designated Senate House was located in Colombo. This arrangement did not last very long. With the promulgation of the Universities Act. No 16 of 1978, university status was again restored to the Campuses and the Colombo Campus of the University of Sri Lanka was renamed the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
University of Colombo[edit]
Under the Universities Act No. 16, 1978, the University of Sri Lanka was split into six independent, autonomous universities as University of Colombo, University of Peradeniya, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, University of Kelaniya, University of Moratuwa and University of Jaffna.[9] This Act brought back some of the central features of the Ceylon University Ordinance of 1942 such as the Senates, the Councils, and Courts.
In 1978 the University of Colombo had Faculties of Medicine, Arts, Science, Education and Law. In the gradual expansion that followed in the 1980s, a Faculty of Management and Finance was established as well as Faculty of Graduate Studies was created by an Ordinance of the UGC in 1987. The Sri Palee Campus of the university was established by a Gazette notification in 1996. In 1978, the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, the Institute of Workers’ Education and the Institute of Indigenous medicine were affiliated with the University of Colombo. The Institute of Computer Technology (ICT) was established in 1987 which became the Computer School in 2002.
