11th Graduation Ceremony of Uva Wellassa University at Magam Ruhunupura Int. Convention Centre
View(s):Graduation marks a momentous occasion in the lives of our graduates and the entire university family. As a student, it’s the next step in their lives and as a faculty together with staff members, we’re awaiting to hear the success stories of our products. Therefore, graduation is a day of celebration for our university.At this moment, I would like to keep some footprints about the 14th National University: namely Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka (UWU), which saw its 11th Graduation take place on March 25, at Magam Ruhunupura International Convention Centre (MRICC).
In 2006, UWU commenced its operations with 153 students, 25 staff members offering five study programmes through three faculties namely; Faculty of Animal Science and Export Agriculture, Faculty of Science and Technology and Faculty of Management respectively upon completion of the initial start-up phase of the project. From its inception, the UWU functions as a“UWU Family” concept where all staff and students live in harmony as a family while sharing the resources on the concept of centralised resource base together towards fulfilling the mission of the University. Hence, we strongly believe that a different approach to change came to the state university system with the birth of UWU. During its 16 years of existence, we have expanded our student intake to more than 1500 students with an addition of the Faculty of Technological Studies. Today, we have powered with 185 staff members nearly 45% of them have completed their doctoral studies.
During the inception of our brand development process, the university held a few meetings with the university stakeholders to identify the values they believed mattered most out of a state university. These values encompassed knowledge and skills, community relationships, efficiency, creativity, and other principles that have been upheld by our university for years.Several new values were included reflecting tradition and strategic priorities and university culture.
In knowledge and skills value, we offer quality and market relevance degree programmes with broad general knowledge while focusing on the steady skills development of our students. Community is the utmost priority in our mission and our desire to create a better sense of place for Uva society. Our community footprint promotes outreach programmes specially designed for the underprivileged Uva community beyond our university geography, we constantly seek to be an active contributor with collaborationcreating opportunities to educate, serve, share and empower our local communities, province and thereby the nation.
Resource sharing and efficiency have become increasingly prominent for operational excellence in the university while on nation’s fiscal struggles in recent years. Creativity is fostered through the culture and character of UWU which is powered through entrepreneurial education and create and promote distinctive research themes to address real-world problems. By defining our values early as an institution, we established authenticity throughout the process.Hence, we promise a well-rounded graduate is envisaged on which our positioning is based.
To make the students ready for the world of work, the Career Guidance Unit of the University provides all undergraduates with an orientation to the employment sector and develop transferable skills such as effective communication skills, leadership skills and teamworking capacity so that they will become productive and efficient members of the workforce. Further, we liaise with private and public sector organisations to find out existing job opportunities, bring them to the notice of graduates and direct the most suitable applicants to the organizations. In this context, the Career Guidance Unit organised its first virtual careers fair in August 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic situation to enable national, regional, and local businesses offering current job vacancies and placements to connect with UWU students. Being one of the first higher education providers to host a virtual fair during lockdown raised the university’s profile with the participation of more than 50 employers and brought positive feedback and recognition for the UWU.
To measure our performance, we have set seven strategic goals and key performance indicators and out of all we closely monitor the employability of our graduates. Therefore, the employability survey was conducted at the general convocation held in December 2021, revealed that among the graduates who attended the convocation, 83% of them are employed (Figure 1.1). The graduates who are not seeking a job or continuing higher studies are included in the “other” category. Thus, the UWU is assuring a promising future for its graduates with a higher employability rate.
UWU family is gearing up to release another 582 fresh graduands to the world of work this March 25 at the MRICC. Among them were 158 from the Faculty of Animal Science and Export Agriculture, 197 from the Faculty of Applied Science, 125 from the Faculty of Management and 102 from the Faculty of Technological Studies. A University having a passion to change while having a strategy to face tomorrow is our success. We expect our graduates to be leaders and to do a significant contribution to the national development of the economy which was much awaited at the 11th General Convocation of the Uva Wellassa University. Congratulations to our UWU graduates!
(Dr. Janaka Siyambalapitiya – Uva Wellassa University
Career Guidance Unit
Senior Lecturer/Director)
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