It is a well-known fact that there is a very high competition to enter a child into a "reputed" government school. Though there are sufficient numbers of government schools available in the country, almost all the parents target at a handful of schools which are perceived to be higher in standards. Most of the parents who attempt to send their children to a government school of their choice finally give up that hope due to various reasons. Options available for them are either a private school or an international school.

All the government schools and almost all the private schools operating in Sri Lanka teach the local curriculum and prepare students for O/L and A/L examinations conducted by the Examination department of Sri Lanka. These students if they succeed in their A/L examination are eligible to apply for entrance to a state university. However, entering a child to a private school has become even more difficult nowadays. As a result now the preferred choice of most of the parents has become an international school.

There are quite a number of international schools that teach the London Edexcel or Cambridge curriculum and prepare students for London O/L and A/L examinations. Further there are a few international schools which prepare children for International Baccalaureate (IB). Most of the Sri Lankan students perform extremely well in these London examinations and achieve very good results. Some of them even reach a higher ranking in the world rankings. However, these students do not have an opportunity to apply for a Sri Lankan state university. They have to go abroad and study in a foreign university, if they wish to obtain university education.

There are two main issues experienced by them. One is that foreign university education is very expensive and most of the Sri Lankan parents cannot afford to bear such high expenses. Other than the university fee, cost of living overseas also has to be borne which is beyond the spending limits of most Sri Lankans. Secondly, the students have to leave their families and study in a novel environment which causes various adverse repercussions. Some children fail to fit into those cultures; some cannot adjust to the climatic changes. Further, due to natural disasters taking place in many parts of the world and also due to terrorism and political instability in many countries, parents are concerned about their children's safety when sending them abroad.

However, since the year 2009, all the London A/L students in Sri Lanka got an opportunity to have their university education here without going abroad. South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine - SAITM, (www.saitm.edu.lk) which is the first private sector multi faculty campus established in Sri Lanka, provides the opportunity for both local and London A/L students to pursue higher education right here in Sri Lanka. The four faculties, namely, Medicine, Engineering, Management & Finance and ICT & Media open avenues for those students to obtain internationally recognized Bachelor's degrees from reputed foreign universities.

Medical degree is offered by the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy, Russian Federation. This medical university is acknowledged by the World Health Organization and is five years in duration. One of the most prestigious engineering universities in the world - Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) offers five different types of engineering degrees. They are Mechatronics engineering, Electronics engineering, Telecommunication engineering, ICT engineering and Civil & Infrastructure engineering. All the engineering degrees are four years in duration.

AIT also offers a four year Computer Science degree where students can specialize either in Software Engineering or in Information Technology. Together with the Buckinghamshire New University, United Kingdom, SAITM offers a Bachelor's degree in Business Management which allows students to specialize in Accounting & Finance, International Management and Business & Marketing. Further, for the first time in Sri Lanka, SAITM introduces a Bachelor's degree in Multimedia. This is a BSc (Hons) degree in Computing with Interactive Media, awarded by the Buckinghamshire New University, UK.

The academic staff of SAITM comprises of Professors and Senior lecturers from state and foreign universities as well as industry experts. The spacious campus premises at Malabe allow the students to experience a real university culture and environment. Other than the high quality education standards SAITM also facilitates the recreation facilities and allows students to enhance their aesthetic skills, too.

As a private higher education institute fully owned by a Sri Lankan entrepreneur, Dr. Neville Fernando, SAITM is happy to announce that around 20% of its student population are from foreign countries. Some of them are children of expatriates and some are foreign nationals. These students bring in foreign currency to Sri Lanka. SAITM is monitored by the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka and complies with its rules and regulation in selecting students and recruiting staff. To obtain further information on SAITM and its degree programmes, interested parties can log on to www.saitm.edu.lk or call on 011 2413331. On line application facility is also provided through the website.