Balanced personalities - focus of Sabaragamuwa University

Continued from March 29 (Thursday)

An interview with Prof. Mahinda S. Rupasinghe, Vice Chancellor of Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

Q: What are the significant changes that took place in the university in your tenure?

A: I took an upper hand to introduce many new Degree Programmes as I mentioned earlier and I think it's the most important. I have started for the first time in 2009, an Awareness Programme to make the students and their parents regarding the study programmes conducted by SUSL. They were conducted in Ratnapura, Bandarawela, Colombo, Matara and Kurunegla and all five Deans, the senior academic staff members and I participated in them.

We tried to explain and promote new Degree Programmes as they always try to select very few traditional disciplines. Annually we plan to implement this programme before they apply for particular disciplines. Also we have an idea to make the A/L teachers too aware of the new Degree Programmes as they are unaware about new programmes. Apart from that I got the opportunity to direct students to go abroad for their practical trainings especially to India and Thailand.

Also I could guide the academic staff to organize Exchange Programmes with foreign universities. For example, Faculty of Management Studies has organized such programmes with Sri Venketeshwaran College of Delhi University in India during last two years. A delegate of about ten experts in Sports Sciences and Management from Durham University in UK came to our university and shared their knowledge and experiences with ours and Senior Sports Officers had conducted several workshops to the staff.

Organizing International Symposiums is not an easy task in a place like Pambahinna where about 160 km away from the capital city but I faced those challenges with confident and made those events successful. I have undertaken many Community Development Projects. We have been implementing 'Livelihood programmes' in the last three years to develop university villages for its overall development under the university village concept which is stated in 'Mahinda Chinthana'.

The first village we were helping was 'Diyawara Gammanaye' which was commenced when President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the Fisheries Minister. Then we have started to develop Ihala Galagama and Puwakgahawela villages and we have already built up a Community Centres for them. As the third step, Pambahinna village has been selected where university is located.

We enhanced the existing Pre-school and English Language Teaching Unit has also implemented several programmes to improve English Communication of village children, with the help of Durham University. English Language Teaching Unit implemented several programmes on English Language Teaching and English Literature to teachers of English in Ratnapura, Balangoda and Bandarawela with the guidance of parliament member Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha and plan to continue these programmes even in future.

I have been trying to give an International outlook to the university, so that re-constructing the entrance from the main road was a major part of it and I'm happy to mention that President Rajapaksa has already taken initiatives and developed the entrance from the main road to the university premises.

Q: Please describe your leadership and management style.

A: I always appreciate collective decisions. I have realized with my experiences that collective decisions are more effective than individuals. So I get meetings with administrative staff once in every fortnight thus many problems relating to administrative matters could be immediately addressed and solved.

I cannot address many problems in the same way as if they are addressed in an urban university due to its rural location so that with much patience I personally attend to them. For example, many academics refuse to shift to our university with their families due to the remoteness of the area. So we have enhanced the existing Pre-school and the Day Care Centre in the university premises itself where they can give their children a good pre-school education.

Very recently we have started a Re-creation Centre to the staff members where they can engage in sports activities and be interactive with each other in their leisure.

We also organize our University Day annually on February 2 to review the progress of the year. Sri Lanka Military Academy, Diyathalawa is also affiliated to our university and they give their fullest co-operation to us.

I'm proud to say that we have being awarded a successful audit opinion from 2007 onwards for maintaining proper accounting records in accordance with Sri Lanka Accounting Standards which is very rare to receive and so far as I know only three universities were awarded this audit opinion including Colombo, Moratuwa and ours.

Q: Any new idea about launching new courses?

A: It depends on the needs of the society. I have already instructed the senior academic staff to design new courses where they are necessary. Our intention is to start a Medical Sciences Faculty in Ratnapura and the relevant authority has already allocated a land with the blessings of Chief Minister, Sabaragamuwa Province, Maheepala Herath and Minister W. D. J. Seneviratne and at the moment we are heading to make it successful.

Q: What is your message for the students?

A: Students should understand that the government spends much money to give them a good education and it's their prime duty to get the maximum use out of their free education and it's their responsibility to help society.

Q: To be a Centre of Excellence in Higher Education is your motto. Do you think that it can be achieved soon? What are your strategies to do so?

A: I don't think that we can achieve it overnight. It will take time. Yet I'm proud to say that in the university grading list we are short listed just after the conventional universities some other universities established along with us couldn't achieve to that.

Concluded