‘UCSC’s contribution to ICT field HRD invaluable’

The contribution the University of Colombo, School of Computing (UCSC) has made towards the development of human resources in the Information and Communication Technology field during the past 25 years was invaluable, UCSC Director Professor Gihan Wikramanayake said at the Ninth BIT Degree convocation and the Diplomas Awards Ceremony held at the BMICH recently.

One hundred and twenty nine (129) students who had successfully completed the Colombo University BIT degree graduated at this ceremony. Every year, the Colombo University presents the Professor V. K. Samaranayake Commemorate Gold Medal (VKS award) to the best performance in the BIT (External) degree programme and this year it was bagged by S. P. Premarathne who obtained the BIT Degree with a First Class. The Best Individual Project Award, presented for the best final year project in the BIT (External) degree programme was secured by Z.M. Nawfhal.

Parallel to the Ninth BIT Degree convocation Ceremony, the 11th Diploma in Information Technology (DIT) Awards Ceremony and the 10th Higher Diploma in Information Technology (HDIT) Awards Ceremony was also held. In those ceremonies, 576 students were awarded their DIT certificates and 309 students were awarded their HDIT certificates. The Best e-Learner Awarded presented to the best e-Learner among the first time diploma holders based on active participation in the virtual learning environment was presented Year 1 Semester 1 student H.N.C. Wijayawardhana. The Best e-Learner Award presented to the best e-Learner among the first time higher diploma holders based on active participation in the virtual learning environment was presented to Year 2 Semester 3 student K.A.T. Jayalath and Year 2 Semester 4 student W.A.M.L.B. Karunarathna.

Expressing his views at the BIT Awards Ceremony Professor Gihan Wikramanayake further said, “So far, we have supplied 1070 BIT degree holders, 2221 HDIT awardees and 4738 DIT awardees to the ICT field of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the University Of Colombo Schoolof Computing trains over 250 internal computing graduates and over 100 postgraduates. Other than that, over 800 students per year qualify from various short-term courses related to the ICT field. Last year, the UCSC has conducted online examinations to over 20,000 students.

“No other state or private sector higher education institution has even come close to these numbers. All these students who have obtained their qualifications from the UCSC have contributed to take the country’s professional information and communication technology field to higher levels. Accordingly, the contribution of UCSC to the human resource development of the ICT field of Sri Lanka during the past 25 years is invaluable,” Prof. Wikramanayake said.