“Winning formula during a pandemic”
View(s):The Virtual International Research Conference Successfully held by BCAS Campus for the first time!
The British College of Applied Studies was established in 1999 and is now popularly known as the BCAS Campus.
Over the past 21 years, among the visionary leaders in the private higher educational arena, BCAS successfully progressed into a leading vocational and tertiary education provider in Sri Lanka with a comparatively large student population and a panel of highly competent lecturers. BCAS offers a wide range of prestigious and industry related BTEC HNDs, Bachelor and Master Degrees through well-established collaboration with its reputed British partner universities namely; Solent University, Oxford Brookes University and University of East London providing an opportunity for the Sri Lankan students to acquire premier UK degrees without leaving the country.
BCAS had previously conducted five local symposia between 2015 and 2019, so the international symposium in January 2021 was a major first to continue as an International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research (iCMR)-2020 in a virtual platform with the inspiring theme of “a winning formula during a pandemic”.
On 9th January 2021, as another precious step, BCAS organized the International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research-2020 (iCMR2020). This conference bears clear testimony to the academic standard of BCAS and drags BCAS into a further milestone ahead among the private education sector of the country.
The main objective of the conference was to facilitate a common forum among different professionals, academics and researches specialized in different research areas by fostering dialogue and promote scientific exchange to encourage regional and international communication amongst them.
During this 2nd Covid pandemic wave in Sri Lanka, this virtual conference organised by BCAS, allowed many local and international researchers to contribute their findings comfortably from their residences, preserving safe health guidelines in a comfortable way and also cutting down the unnecessary expenditure during this crisis situation of the country
The International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research (iCMR) 2021 was inaugurated by Professor Swarna Piyasiri; the conference chair and the Dean, Academic Affairs of BCAS with a welcome address to the participants.
Then it was followed with a motivational speech from the Chief Guest, Professor Ranjith Senaratne (Chairman, National Science Foundation and Former Vice Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). There were two keynote speakers; Senior Professor M M Pathmalal, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, co-chair of the Research Council and Director of the Centre for Water Quality and Algae Research, at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and Dr. Kokila Konasinghe (Senior Lecturer, Department of Public and International Law and Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP).
More than 70 research papers were presented in eight sessions of the conference and it had proved to be a major success as international and Sri Lankan participants contributed and shared their academic research through virtual interactive discussions. The major sessions focused by the conference were on the key disciplines of Bio Medical Sciences, Computer Science, Legal studies, Management, Engineering, Quantity Surveying, Language Studies and other applied researches. The conference provided an opportunity for the BCAS academia to interact with both national and international researchers in different subject areas. It was a successful conference in which everyone could share their knowledge and theoretical ideas in a virtual setting.
ICMR2020 is a milestone in the private education sector of the country and a great achievement for BCAS. With two modern and highly equipped campuses in Mount Lavinia and Colombo 06, along with three regional campuses in Kandy, Jaffna and Kalmunai, BCAS continuously thrives to provide ample learning opportunities to its diverse student community through a combined approach of virtual and physical delivery of lectures.
Showcasing its excellent academic results and teaching expertise, BCAS has won over 18 local and international awards and continues to assure students of the best possible learning experience while reinforcing trust and confidence in the institute.