The Faculty of Management is the ninth and the youngest Faculty at the University of Peradeniya, established in 2015, separating the Department of Management Studies from the Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya. Even though the Faculty of Management at the University of Peradeniya is only five years old, the University of Peradeniya is the pioneer in Management higher-education in the country as it has been offering a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.) degree program since 1962.
Initially, management education at the University of Peradeniya remained under the purview of the Department of Economics, Commerce and Statistics in the Faculty of Arts that offered the B.Com. degree program. Later, in 2002, a separate department was established in the Faculty of Arts, namely, the Department of Management Studies in order to cater to the growing demand from the students. This department started offering a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree program in 2008 for the university entrants who had pursued their G.C.E. (Advanced Level) studies in the Commerce stream. This much of expansion justified the establishment of a new Faculty of Management at the University of Peradeniya in October 2014, when the Gazette notification was published. The academic activities of the Faculty of Management commenced on January 28, 2015 with the appointment of Heads for five Departments, namely, Business Finance, Human Resource Management, Management Studies, Marketing Management and Operations Management.
At present, the Faculty of Management offers the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree under five specializations related to each Department and caters to about 175 university entrants who sat their G.C.E. (Advanced Level) examination in the Commerce stream each year. In addition, it also offers two inter-faculty degree programs, namely, B. Com. and B.Sc. in Computation and Management in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science respectively. The annual intake for each of these degree programs is 50 students. Moreover, the Faculty offers various management courses as by-subjects for the benefit of the students who follow Bachelor of Arts (Special) and Bachelor of Arts (General) degree programs at the Faculty of Arts. Altogether, the Faculty caters to approximately 1,000 undergraduates at a given time.
Apart from the internal degree programs, the Faculty offers a BBA (Online) degree program and a Diploma in Management and Development program through the Centre for Distance & Continuing Education (CDCE) of the University of Peradeniya. Furthermore, the Faculty of Management offers two postgraduate diplomas and four master’s degree programs with a view to expanding its service to those who seek postgraduate qualification and training particularly in the Central region of the country.
Within five years of its existence, the Faculty has achieved the highest grade (Grade ‘A’) offered by the Quality Assurance Council of the University Grants Commission (UGC) for its BBA Degree Program. Recently, the Faculty has also won the AHEAD grants worth of Rs.120 million through which it proposes to construct a building and a computer lab and purchase furniture, equipment, and learning materials to promote outcome-based education and learner-centered teaching.
As part of the strategic plan, the Faculty of Management intends to expand its portfolio in line with the development taking place in the industry by introducing new degree programs at undergraduate as well as postgraduate levels. For this purpose, the Faculty plans to train the staff and develop its physical infrastructure to provide students with adequate knowledge and facilities to transform them into high-quality graduates.
Prof. E.M.A.S.B. Ekanayake (B.Sc. Bus. Adm., MBA, PhD, FCA)
Dean, Faculty of Management
University of Peradeniya
