Agriculture Faculty marks 60 years with ‘thank you’ to partners

The Agriculture Faculty celebrated its sixty years in the field of higher education in agriculture in Sri Lanka by felicitating all government as well as non-government organizations which had assisted the Agriculture Faculty over the years.

This is the first time in the history of the Peradeniya University that such an undertaking has been arranged to say ‘thank you.’
Agriculture Faculty Dean Prof. Buddhi Marambe said people point fingers at the University community stating that universities do not produce employable graduates.

With this in mind the Agriculture Faculty firmly believes in ‘knowledge societies’ and developing human resources, aiming at the country’s overall developmental process, he said. He said the university system in Sri Lanka was established in 1942. Higher education in agriculture commenced in 1948 at Peradeniya and the first set of students entered Peradeniya in 1948 to follow the Agriculture Degree program, well before the Peradeniya campus was established in 1951 and it is the undisputed leader in agriculture today.

Prof. Marambe said he is proud of the faculty’s achievements in the past and it has learnt from experience. He said everyone worked as a team, had always clicked together, and had never ever given up their efforts to continue to be the leader and the centre of excellence in higher education in agriculture and related sciences.

He said the faculty has been in the forefront of curriculum development, innovative research ideas leading to product development, and making revolutionary changes to the higher education system of Sri Lanka, such as introducing the course unit based and semester-based education, and student-centered learning approaches.

Prof. Maramabe said the faculty did not find a better time than now to mark the sixty years of higher education in agriculture and to thank whole heartedly all those who gave assistance. He told these partners to be with the faculty in the future to support university education, research and outreach activities and in the development of the country.

Peradeniya University Vice Chancellor Prof. Harischandra Abeygunawardene said the Agriculture Faculty, apart from introducing novel approaches, such as student-learning and outcome-oriented education, has nourished the other faculties in the university system to develop their educational programmes.