Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Tilak Karunaratne delivering the keynote address at the 34th Annual General Meeting of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo held at the Senate Hall at College House proposed three new approaches for university education in Sri Lanka, which would be a paradigm shift in policy, rules and regulations and in effect a complete change in approach for university education.

He emphasized the need to encourage the culture of making endowments for universities which is presently virtually a non-existent practice in Sri Lanka. He said that we have, by our own standards, large corporates, banks, extremely large family-owned businesses and other commercial ventures not forgetting high-net-worth individuals who have the capacity to make these endowments. Yet, we hardly tap them for endowments for our universities. However, the situation is entirely different in the developed world and even in a few countries in the developing world. In these countries, big corporates generously offer endowments if actively canvassed by the alumni and the universities themselves.  

He further quoted an example where Harvard University currently has an endowment fund of US $ 36.5 billion. Other leading US universities also have large endowments and they continue to collect funds which are professionally managed with investments in fixed income instruments as well as in the capital market. He pointed out that all these universities have professional fund managers looking after these funds. He said that even the UK, top universities such as Cambridge and Oxford have reasonably large endowments, which of course are not comparable in size to those of the US. He said that the details of what they do with these endowments are freely available in their respective websites.

Karunaratne also raised concerns on the employability of graduates, especially those who come out with a degree in humanities. He said that the alumni can get actively involved in training these graduates, with the collaboration of the university, in areas where they could be found reasonable employment. He suggested the area of service management. He pointed out that tourism is booming in our country and we have not anticipated the exponential growth of tourists from China. He suggested that the university can run a diploma course which will arm the students with these skills. He said that the necessary finances and the teachers may be drawn from the industry itself under the supervision of our own staff. He added that this is just one area and there are many more. 

He said that during the period 2005 to 2014, the governments absorbed into public service these so-called unemployable graduates at a very low salary and without any specific duties to perform. This he said only bloated our public service, which was doubled during this period, adding to the pension burden of the government, which eventually will be passed on to the citizens of this country. 
He also mentioned that there was research to show that this phenomenon of unemployability was common to the region and that even in countries such as South Korea, graduates spend another two years following courses of studies, which will prepare them for the positions available in the job market.  

PPP arrangements 
The third point raised by Karunaratne was the need for state universities getting into a private-public partnership (PPP) arrangement with prestigious foreign universities who are willing to add value to courses and also get their academia to join staff of our universities on short-term basis without any additional burden imposed. He stated that to implement this idea there has to be a change of rules and regulations. 
Alumni Association President Rajeev Amarasuriya, who presided at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), in his address highlighted the focus areas of activity for the next year which included a series of projects planned for the welfare of the undergraduates and membership development.

He said that an area that the association will be focusing on is to encourage enrolling young alumni as the members of the association and encourage them to commence their involvement as active alumni soon after leaving the university. He mentioned that the socioeconomic environment was different today and young alumni sometimes have greater priorities before serving their alma mater.

He said that the association needs to move with the times and cater to the changing needs of the membership and would therefore formulate a series of benefits for members.
Speaking at the event, Vice Chancellor Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake said that the university has been given ‘Grade A’ ranking by the Institutional Review conducted by the University Grants Commission. Among the key initiatives outlined were the addition of two new faculties to the University of Colombo, namely the Technology Faculty and Nursing Faculty, which the Vice Chancellor informed is expected to be ready for student intakes as early as next year.

The Vice Chancellor also commented that the quality of teaching within the university was excellent as is the ability to learn amongst the undergraduates, given that it is the cream of the students who are admitted to the University of Colombo based on the high ‘Z’ score rankings obtained at the Advance Level examination. Therefore the current expectations gap perceived by employers when recruiting university graduates is on account of the improvements needed with regard to the soft skills of the undergraduates. In order to address this lacuna, the Vice Chancellor mentioned that the university has launched several initiatives with long-term vision such as strengthening of the Career Guidance Centre, tie ups with leading corporates in the private sector to source expertise in soft skill development and also internationalization of the programmes conducted by the university by signing Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with several leading universities overseas.

Association Secretary Ruwandhi Thanthrige presented the annual report of the association, highlighting several activities and initiatives undertaken by the association in the last year.
Association Treasurer Jithendra Gunathilake also formally launched a mentoring prowgramme for undergraduates on this occasion.  This programme will consist of ‘one-to-one’ sessions as well as group sessions that will help the undergraduates to acquire soft skills that are necessary for them to be more employable for jobs in the government and private sectors. The unique feature of this mentoring programme will be that resource personnel will be conducting the group sessions at the university student hostels in addition to the sessions that will be conducted within the university premises. 

The Executive Committee for 2016/2017 comprise of Rajeev Amarasuriya (President), Lakshman Keerthisinghe (Immediate Past President), Suranjani Wickremeratne (Vice President), Ruwandhi Thanthrige (Secretary), Dr. Naazima Kamardeen (Assistant Secretary), Jithendra Gunatilake (Treasurer), J.M.S. Bandara (Assistant Treasurer), Mahesha Amarasuriya (Editor), Ajith Jayawardene (Assistant Editor), Prof. Gihan Wickramanayake, M.K. Gnanasekera, Milton Arandara,  G. Wijemanne, Channa De Silva, Isuru Thilakawardena, Nayantha Wijesundara, K.D.R Siriwardena, D.H.W Kirinde and Ruhani De Silva with Tissa Devendra, J. Charitha Ratwatte, Thilak Karunaratne, Ramanee Amarasuriya and P.W. Senaratne as Past President Advisors.
 

Alumni felicitation
To coincide with the AGM, a charming felicitation ceremony was conducted to recognize and felicitate eight senior distinguished alumni of the University of Sri Lanka, which was the predecessor of the University of Colombo, for the outstanding services they have rendered to the nation.

They were veteran film actress Kala Keerthi Irangani Serasinghe, who graduated in 1947, writer and former President of the Dutch Burgher Union, Colombo, and Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands Deloraine Brohier, who graduated in 1950, former Director/Secretary of Forbes and Walker Ltd and Chartered Accountant B.D.K. Saldin, leading intellectual and winner of the World No-Tobacco Day Award by the World Health Organisation in 2012 and Chairman, Sri Lanka Medical Council Prof. Carlo Fonseka, former Chairman of the Public Service Commission and Salaries Commission and founder President of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo Tissa Devendra, who graduated in 1952, the award winning writer and Gratiaen Prize winner with Carl Muller Lalitha K. Withanachchi, Emeritus Professor of Economics and President of the Economic Association Prof. A.D.V. Indraratne and Agriculture Culture Specialist, researcher and author Dr. C.R. Panabokke, who graduated in 1949.