The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) is the pioneer in offering a bachelors' degree programme for Software Engineering specialisation in a National University in Sri Lanka. The Bachelor of Software Engineering (BSE) degree programme was launched in June 2009. At present the OUSL is calling applications for its 3rd intake until 14th March 2011. This is an opportunity to earn a well recognised software engineering degree in Sri Lankan.

The OUSL timely understood the necessity of such a degree in the area of computing several years ago. In those days the need for quality software engineers was arising in the software industry in Sri Lanka. As a national university, OUSL came forward to fulfil this requirement with the collaboration of Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM).

Bachelor of Software Engineering
Today software engineering has become one of the major disciplines in computing. In the early days, software engineering was just a discipline within Computer Science. As it has to be addressed as a new discipline, in the year 2004, the IEEE Computer Society and ACM published curriculum guidelines for software engineering degrees.

The BSE degree has been carefully designed along the said guidelines and considering the demand and expectations of the IT sector in Sri Lanka. For the development of the curriculum and the course contents, professionals from software companies and academics participated and put their untiring efforts. The curriculum of the BSE degree has core areas such as Software Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering, Projects, Non Technical, Training and Application domain.
Software engineering core area encompasses the essential material that every student must learn to obtain a software engineering degree. Students study subjects related to Software Modelling, Analysis, and Design, Software Verification, Validation and Quality Assurance, Software Evolution, Process, and Management.

It is a fundamental requirement for a software engineer in the industry today to have in depth knowledge in these areas. Moreover no other computing discipline may cover these knowledge areas up to this extent. As some of these areas are more practical oriented and need inputs from software developments of real world problems, the experts in the software industry conduct classes for the relevant subjects. Frequent seminars, which are conducted by the professionals from the software industry, are also held to give exposure to students in this regard.

As software engineering is more practical oriented, students have to demonstrate their software development skills as well as applying theory to practice by doing individual projects in different subjects. In the final project students apply their knowledge and skills to solve practical problems. Here, the students work as a team simulating actual teamwork in the industry. This will give hands on experience in teamwork, which is important in the industry today.

Online classes: learn at any time at any place
All the courses offered in the BSE degree programme are delivered through distance mode. OUSL provides all necessary course material, study guides free of charge. Practical sessions will be held in well equipped state of the art laboratories located in Colombo Centre. Moreover all the courses are available online and students can access the online classes from anywhere.

Industrial placements and application domain
As training is one of the significant components, students will be working in the industry after the first year while studying. The SLASSCOM facilitates the provision of industrial placements according to the MoU signed between OUSL and them.

According to the curriculum guidelines, the significant different from other degrees is to have the application domain knowledge area built in to the undergraduate curriculum. This is imperative that the software engineering graduates should have breadth of knowledge at least in one application domain. However curriculum designers face the challenge at this point as application domain can be anything and it belongs to wide spectrum of subject areas. The OUSL has resolved this problem by including the necessary domain knowledge into the entry qualification. Therefore applicants need to have one year academic study or professional qualifications to enter the programme.

Four year degree in three years
As one year academic work is required to enter the programme, it will pave the way to earn a four year specialised degree in 3 years. More details and the qualifications evaluated can be found from the BSE website http://ou.ac.lk/bse.

The OUSL invites those who are willing to become software engineers. It is a cost effective programme and you will be able to earn a world standard degree from a well recognised university.