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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
st
21 September 2021

Message from the Chairman, University Grants Commission

It gives me great pleasure to send this message to the Inaugural Ruhuna University Quality Assurance
Sessions. The education sector globally has been faced with tremendous pressure to sustain itself in

the Covid 19 pandemic. The sector has been able to cope with transformation to online platforms

although with different levels of capability depending on the development stage of the country. Sri
Lanka has done well compared to our South Asian neighbours and traditional quality assurance

process has been challenged under these conditions. Quality assurance in higher education has been
made a global concern with the active involvement of non-state sector and lateral and vertical

movement of students. This is as a result of the commercialization and globalization of higher

education given the increase in demand for it during the pandemic. These pose new challenges to the
quality assurance process. Sri Lanka’s higher education system coped well with the higher demand this

year with a 30% increase in the total number of admissions to the state universities. University of
Ruhuna committed to the maximum increase in number up to 1500 (15%) of the total increased intake.

I wish express to my sincere appreciation to the entire University of Ruhuna team in their efforts to

facilitate this increased demand.

University Grants Commission places a high emphasis on quality assurance. During the last decade,
Quality Assurance Council of the University Grants Commission in collaboration with the Internal

Quality Assurance Units (subsequently converted in to Senate approved Centres for Quality
Assurance) in universities have taken numerous efforts to establish a strong QA process within our

university system. The driving forces for improvement in quality have been the Internalization of best
practices and regular internal and external review. Programme and Institutional Reviews are now well

established within our system as external reviews. The Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions, on one

hand indicate the establishment of a strong quality culture within the Ruhuna University. On the other
hand, it provides a platform to all quality conscious parties to learn from each other, share experiences

and generate new ideas, thus serving as an internal review forum. It is also encouraging to note that

both academics and administrative staff take part in the sessions and involvement of students in the
future sessions should be encouraged.

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Ruhuna University for introducing a best practice into our

University System, conducting many academic programmes online while successfully combating the
challenges following the large intakes of new students. I wish those who participate in this event make

the best out of the deliberations during the Sessions.

Senior Professor Sampath Amaratunge
Chairman, University Grants Commission

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