Linking business studies to the needs of the industry is vital today
Although business education has lasted for a long period in the country very little has changed in terms of the components of business. There is a divide between business education and what the industry needs today, said Prof. Lalith P. Samarakoon, Secretary General of the National Economic Council making the keynote address at the launch of the Sri Lanka Technological Campus (SLTC)’s Business School logo at the Trace City, Colombo 10 last week. Chancellor of the Moratuwa University – Prof. K.K.W.W. Perera; Chairman of the Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), Kumarasiri Sirisena and SLTC President/CEO Ranjith Rubasinghe among others participated at the event. The SLTC is part of the SLT group.
Prof. Samarakoon said following the recession in 2008 in the US universities it was difficult to enroll students in business education. There is competition among many business studies in Sri Lanka at present. “Today employers look at the value the employees are going to bring to the company. Entrepreneurship and innovation have become the most important elements today.” SLTC President /CEO Mr. Rubasinghe said there are more than 700 students with 20 full-time PhD’s and 22 Masters and 45 other graduates at the SLTC university. The engineering faculty has more than 100 full-time students following courses. He said that SLTC has 19 degree programmes and SLT is providing all resources to run the university independently. “Of the 300,000 students who want to pursue university education in Sri Lanka we only cater to about 20,000-25,000 students at this university. We are a research-led university.” he said. The SLTC is based at Padukka, near Avissawella and is a large university providing many facilities to its students. “We have plans for future development of the university to build a bigger one in this scenic 40 acres of land at Padukka. The SLTC is located in an ideal surrounding at Padukka which is not close and not so far from Colombo,” Mr. Rubasinghe said.
Referring to the background of the university, he said the campus has had a short history having started on 2015 but have done a vast deal during that short period of time.
He said the old Satellite building at Padukka was converted into making the present SLTC by adding more buildings to accommodate students.
The university is equipped with a Tissue Culture Laboratory and a Fibre Optic Laboratory in addition to other facilities. The SLTC is also linked to Microsoft and other international universities in the world such as those in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam. SLTC’s portfolio programmes include Electronics and Software Engineering, Bio Tech and Management, and Tourism and Hospitality. The newest programme at the university is the Business School. ”This is a residential university and we encourage students to come and stay with us.” he said.