CINEC facilitates postgraduate education

Logistics and Transportation Management:

Prof. J.A. Karunaratne
Dean – Faculty of Management, CINEC Campus’ 20

Since rapid proliferation of international trade starting from mid-1980s and the programme of globalisation of the economies launched subsequently by WTO, Logistics and Transportation Management gained currency as a new discipline taught at universities and at the institutions of advance learning in major developed and other high growth economies.

Currently, the subject is taught at some of the Ivy League universities of the western countries and some other economies of accelerated growth. Since about 2007 it has been introduced in the university curricular of Sri Lanka. CINEC Campus is one of such institutions of advanced learning where this subject has been taught, since 2007. Since two years back CINEC has even been able to facilitate postgraduate education in Logistics and Transportation Management and related subjects that pave the way for MScs, MBAs and indeed PhD in the discipline.

Logistics and Transportation Management refers, basically, to the efficient management of the transportation of goods from the point of their production to the point of their consumption. Efficient management stands for, amongst other things, the cost efficiency, operational efficiency and environmental efficiency.

With rapid infrastructure development activities in progress in the countries of Asia, the growth of logistics and transportation activities is bound to take major steps forwards over the months and years to come. The infrastructure development being ensued in Sri Lanka comprehends the development of airports and air hubs and naval ports and naval hubs, expansion of the road system, refurbishment of the existing railway network and new logistics facilities with storage and repackaging centres.

However, in order to sustain a good logistics and transportation management system, one requires also the qualified professionals who have sound knowledge in the subject. Otherwise, any endeavour in the promotion of the logistics and transportation facilities may not be able to fully materialised.

It is with this vision of sufficing the market with academically qualified and skills professionals that CINEC Campus endeavours to promote its logistics and Transportation programme.

It must be added here that the syllabi of the subjects used in the programme have won the acclaim of the industry.

This has been evidenced by the fact that all the students of the logistics programme who have completed their studies have been able to secure managerial level positions with handsome pay and sound perquisites within the week of completion of their studies. In some instances, the students have been promised lucrative positions whilst they were still doing their final year studies. Indeed, the market in Sri Lanka for the professionals in the field of Logistics is extremely good. Over the five year period, according to some forecasts, the demand for professionals in logistics and transportation management is going to be about 24,000. The same in India is going to be about 4.5 million.

The figure denoting the same in the major ASEAN economies is not less than that of India. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand are already experiencing acute dearth in the supply of logistics professionals. One must note that a significant portion of this market is open for the professionals with postgraduate qualifications.

Some of the students from Logistics and Transportation management at CINEC have already been able to secure position in the field in countries such as Australia, Singapore and in West Asia and are doing well.

Then there are those who eyeing the market in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand where the market for professionals with postgraduate qualifications is rapidly growing. Indeed, the US and Canada are two other markets where the potentials for the graduates with postgraduate qualifications are most tangible.

There are a few important reasons for this success with the programme carried out in Logistics and Transportation Management at the Faculty of Management, CINEC Campus.

They include the agile and flexible subject syllabi that is open to continual improvements based on, first, the global structural shifts of the economies, technological development, resurgence of Asia as growth engines, and new formations of conglomerations of enterprises, second, the professional bodies related to the subject and, third, the policy makers of the legislature.

Another important reason for this success is the fact that the lecturers who conduct the classes under this programme are highly qualified in the field, who in some cases, make those who have been brought down from Ivy League universities abroad, and who are most keen on imparting their knowledge in a student friendly manner.

The philosophy of CINEC goes to underline the fact that CINEC is not there to merely handover the students a certificate at the completion of the studies and send them off with a pat on their shoulders.

It has its mission in, instead, producing highly motivated academically qualified individual with right attitude and aptitude for the profession and one who have the right kind of professional values and social and professional disciplines. It is such candidates that the market desires.

Those students who wish to invest in their future seek to invest with Management Faculty of the CINEC Campus, the seat of excellence in Logistics and Transportation Management studies.