To develop tertiary education sector:

Gateway launches graduate school

Gateway, plans to develop its tertiary education sector by launching the Gateway Graduate School, situated in close proximity to Gateway College, Rajagiriya one hundred yards from the Parliament Road. The Campus consists of state-of-the-art facilities for modern teaching, sports and recreation.

Gateway Graduate School, in partnership with NCC Education UK, will initially offer a choice of two career pathways to complete Degrees from University of Wales, here in Sri Lanka. They are able to receive the Degree at the University convocation in the UK.

Undergraduates will also have the option of transferring to Universities in UK, USA or Australia at the end of every academic year.

The three year programme of study is structured for students to receive industry recognised qualifications at the end of every year. The organisation wishes to offer Degrees in more specialties from more Universities in time to come.

BSc (Hons) in Business Computing and Information Systems equips graduates with the technical and personal skills necessary for taking part in the design, implementation and management of modern computer systems and to provide professionally-minded computer practitioners with the responsibilities and challenges that the computing industry demand.

BSc (Hons) in Business Administration covers the scope of international business through a logical and cohesive progression over a period of three years. It includes modules preparing the students for work or postgraduate study in the areas of management, accounting, marketing and finance.

On completion of the degree, students will have the knowledge and understanding required at various levels in an international business working environment, as well as the skills required to research, analyse and manage business relationships, or to develop further through postgraduate study.

An additional International Foundation Year (IFY) is available for students who wish to join after Sri Lankan or London OL. IFY will be of benefit to students who wish to continue their studies to degree level and beyond, but who are currently under-qualified both linguistically and in their subject specialisation to begin undergraduate studies.

The programme in addition to raising students’ English level will also provide a firm grounding in Business and Computing along with study skills, personal development and culture.

With qualified and experienced staff drawn from the industry, an up-to-date library, multimedia centre etc. the Graduate school promises a new revolution in teaching and learning.

A spacious garden with play areas for many sports including Tennis, Basketball, Netball and many others provide the necessary environment for a modern campus. Facilities such as swimming pool, badminton courts, squash courts etc. will be made available to students in the near future.

The Governor of the Graduate School is Vidya Jyothi Emeritus Professor Dayantha Wijeyesekera. As a former Vice Chancellor of two esteemed Universities - University of Moratuwa and Open University of Sri Lanka, Professor Wijeyesekera brings in a wealth of experience as a renowned educationist and an institution builder.

Through Gateway Graduate School, he wishes to provide tertiary Education opportunities at affordable costs either entirely or partly overseas depending on the choice of parents.

He is of the view that obtaining qualifications from foreign universities should be based on recognition from local industry and professional bodies. He mentions that every endeavour would be made to achieve these goals.

Chairman Gateway R. I. T. Alles, mentions that the organisation is delighted to be opening the new Graduate School. When Gateway International School was re-named as Gateway College, the theme and focus was renewed to provide education from ‘Foundation to Graduation’.

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Cranfield MBA Scholarship for Lanka

Cranfield School of Management in the UK will present a scholarship to any member of the three leading IFAC accountancy bodies in Sri Lanka, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants Sri Lanka (ICASL) or the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Sri Lanka Branch (CIMA).

Full Time MBA Programme Director Sean Rickard who informed Sri Lanka of the scholarship said, “We hope the scholarship attracts candidates who will benefit from this initiative and that, with the help of the accounting bodies in Sri Lanka, it will raise Cranfield’s profile. We are extremely grateful for the support of the institutes in this. We will be reviewing the success of the programme after two years.”

ACCA Sri Lanka’s Immediate Past President, Dilshan Rodrigo, himself an alumni of the Cranfield School of Management says, “I hope most sincerely that this initiative will signal the birth of a new generation of professional skilled managers who will add value to the corporate boardrooms of Sri Lanka.”

Stating that this is a world class MBA ranked consistently as one of the top MBAs in Europe, he adds, “This one year full time programme is ideally suited for members in middle and senior management positions with ambitious career goals.”

Rodrigo, who has continued to maintain ties with Cranfield, further reinforced the relationship once he became President of ACCA Sri Lanka, sourcing resource speakers for the ACCA National Conferences in the last two years.

“Two people who played significant roles in mooting this scholarship from the Cranfield end are the former Director of the MBA Programme Professor Leo Murray who was the Keynote Speaker at our conference in 2006 and Sri Sriskanthan, a Sri Lankan faculty member on the MBA programme.”

Cranfield has produced a distinguished honour roll of MBA alumni from Sri Lanka over the last two decades including Managing Director of Hatton National Bank Rajendra Theagarajah, Senior Vice President of WNS Arul Sivagananathan and Group Financial Controller of Stretchline Hasantha de Silva.

Members of ICASL, ACCA and CIMA must apply directly to Cranfield School of Management, for which instructions are available on the Cranfield website www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba/, marking the application ‘Sri Lanka Scholarship’.

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CINEC Maritime Campus Convocation

The Colombo International Nautical and Engineering College (CINEC), Malabe, which has been conducting courses in Maritime Studies for eighteen years, will be holding its first convocation today at 3.30 p.m. at the Klaus E Oldendorff Auditorium of the campus for the conferment of Bachelor’s Degree and Diplomas to all those who have successfully completed the examinations conducted by CINEC.

The Bachelor’s Degree are awarded by Dalian Maritime University (DMU) of the People’s Republic of China, under a cooperative agreement allowing CINEC to offer three programmes of DMU.

The congregation will be presided by the Chancellor of CINEC, Professor (Dr.) P.K. Mukherjee, Vice President (Research) of World Maritime University, Sweden.

The Chief Guest on the occasion will be Professor (Dr.) Wang Zuwen, President of Dalian Maritime University.