Prompted by the passion to provide a quality, all round education to local students who miss out on the opportunity to secure entrance to local universities, the South Asian Institute of Technology and Management (SAITM), a state- of-the-art higher education Institution, set in an eco-friendly environment in the city of Malabe, was inaugurated in 2009. The visionary behind SAITM is Dr. Neville Fernando (MBBS) Ceylon, Chairman of SAITM.

Built at a cost of over Rs 800 Million, SAITM is one of the most environmentally friendly educational institutions in the country. Creative individuals aspiring to obtain a Degree in Multimedia now have an opportunity to complete their degree in Sri Lanka at SAITM. This 3 year BSc. in Computing and Interactive Media Degree offered by a reputed UK University usually costs about Rs.1,300,000/=. Dr.Neville Fernando Foundation offers students a scholarship - a reputed UK degree in computing for around Rs 750,000/- is an example at the faculty of ICT and Media.

The faculty currently offers three undergraduate programmes:
1 B.Sc. in Computing (Basic IT degree)
2. B.Sc. in Computing with Interactive Media (Multimedia)
3. B.Sc. in Computing with Accounting and Finance (IT with Accounting)

The faculty's vision is empowering youth in applied communication. Their mission is to use ICT and Multimedia technologies to develop leaders of our communities and equip the youth with vocational skills that will help them create a better tomorrow.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a major role in modern society. This is evident by the large number of job opportunities available worldwide. Radio, TV, Print and Digital Media Production, Journalism, Public Relations - if these are your areas of interest, then the BSc. in Interactive Media degree programme is designed for you.

The aim of the faculty is to provide a supportive and stimulating learning environment for students at all levels from all parts of the world. Top quality teaching and supervision is informed by a dynamic and productive research culture. Students are taught by staff from diverse backgrounds who are actively engaged in leading edge research in their specialist fields.

The programme "Computing with Interactive Media" (or Multimedia) is already started with Buckinghamshire New University (BNU or new BUCKs), UK (www.bucks.ac.uk)). This programme is open to all those who have talents and skills in Multimedia technology to obtain an academic qualification. The BNU degree can be obtained through two study paths.

The first is through the EDEXCEL (www.edexcel.com) BTEC HND (Higher National Diploma, level 5) and the second is via SAITM Higher Diploma, HD (a TVEC registered Diploma). Once the students successfully complete the diploma of two years they can join the third year of BNU degree in computing with Interactive Media. They need not go to UK but can be completed fully in Sri Lanka saving a large amount of foreign exchange.

"The pattern of teaching or lecturing the students in our institute is far-fetched from the typical learning pattern of spoon-feeding. The students get the opportunity to feed themselves, access the web and find new knowledge keeping themselves always up-to-date on the latest terms that are just arrived in Multimedia & ICT field." stated Prof. Sirimevan Widyasekera, Dean, Faculty of ICT and Media.

It was recently visited by the officials of UGC and now monitoring its activities to allow SAITM to grant its own degrees in identified areas. SAITM has 4 faculties and has a student base of over 500 during a short span of 18 months. The course prepares you for a professional career in the exciting and rapidly changing area of Interactive Media.

It gives you the opportunity to develop a wide range of practical abilities and knowledge in areas such as web design and development, streaming media, rich-media, interaction design, digital sound and video, image composition, 3D modelling and animation, project management and critical and creative thinking.

Career opportunities
Opportunities to work in interactive media are very broad and could include: interactive and dynamic web design and development, e-learning, project management, design and development of interactive CDs & DVDs, online marketing & advertising, e-commerce, online publishing, online broadcasting and pod-casting and digital entertainment.

ICT & Media faculty has 24 inch latest Apple i-Mac computers and high end multimedia PCs for the students to do their course work. Students can access all course resources by its Learning Management System through internet. SAITM campus is equipped with high-speed area wide wi-fi network to work with the laptops and modern day smart phones.

Further, the industry experts are also affiliated with SAITM where its students can learn from them with the involvement in their current ongoing projects. Recently Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) was offered with the SAITM's computing labs to conduct their training programmes allowing staff and students to interact with them in new and upcoming technologies. In this context SLRC has offered New Media Technologies and Video editing international workshops to many of the industry players at SAITM.
"We possess a fully-fledged modern auditorium which consists of about 500 seats for degree convocations and other special purposes of students. We have equipped our modern library with the latest books and CDs. These books are hand-picked and very valuable in acquiring the right knowledge." stated Prof. Widyasekera.

"SAITM is equipped with true gigabit Ethernet via fibre-optic, perhaps the only campus to have such high-speed direct backbone access, enabling video streaming, eLearning etc... The class size is kept to maximum of 50 whereas the labs are equipped with most modern computers of 30, connected to a true gigabit local area network." He further mentioned.

"By the end of the year, we intend to shift our Faculty of ICT and Media to a newly-built building with all modern technologies to further expand our capabilities. Our institution with well qualified teachers will teach you to learn. The hands-on approach allows you to think and learn independently," he said.

SAITM Faculty of ICT & Media recognises students with NQF Level 5 (UK) qualifications from other IT disciplines and they shall apply for exemptions and start directly with Year 3 of the BSc programme. Save precious time and fast track towards a prestigious degree programme from University of Buckinghamshire New University; at a fraction of the cost of doing it abroad.