Vice-Chancellor's message – COVID-19 Outbreak Notices | Upscale its digital facilities

Dear Members of Staff & Students,

I convey to you my sincere greetings and best wishes for a healthy, gainful, and fulfilling month of August.

We have completed 16 months of living, working, studying and progressing despite the perpetual threat imposed to our health and safety from the SARS Cov-2. Back in February 2020, we travelled and functioned freely with scant attention to any possible threat to our mere existence!

We were catapulted into a different “orbit”.

We responded, we adapted and we have survived.

Working and studying from home in a virtual setting helped us understand the importance of digital connectivity, self-reliant learning, and pragmatic adjustments to our academic and social responsibilities.

I thank everyone for your constant cooperation and willingness to adjust and adapt to the changing needs of work and lifestyle behaviours, made obligatory by the continuing threat of the pandemic. I extend my most sincere appreciation to all members of staff, who went that extra mile to ensure that the student teaching-learning environment remains of high quality with purpose.

The perpetual participatory role of those in charge of student counselling and welfare, medical care for the entire university community that includes a comprehensive vaccination programme and the security and janitorial services well complimented the excellent inputs by the Rector, Deans, Directors and Heads of Departments and sectional heads in their academic planning.

The role of the Blended Learning group established in collaboration with the Cyber ‘Campus’ and Network Operating Centre has helped the UoC upscale its digital facilities, blended learning and online assessments. The provision of regular university-wide web updates along with access to library information and services, in parallel with staff development, quality assurance, real-time staff-student scholarship opportunities with international collaboration; portray some of the excellent attributes in leadership, teamwork and institutional responsibility among the multitude of UoC stakeholders.

The sustenance of our Number 1 position in webometrics ranking is thus well explained.

My sincere appreciation of the Registrar, Bursar and their officers and teams for commitment demonstrated on a 24/7 basis. The adoption of best practices that help ensure efficiency and effectiveness well explains that the UoC is considered the role-model of state-sector higher education in Sri Lanka.

Let us maintain the momentum of change towards a better future and avoid the tendency to slide back towards the past.

I wish you the best of health and happiness always.

Yours truly,

Chandrika Wijeyaratne

Vice Chancellor