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Making
Moratuwa varsity a world-class outfit Addressing
a packed house of 550 B.Sc. Engineering and 50 B.Sc. IT students
who entered the University of Moratuwa, Prof. Ratnayake provided
some ideas on how this could be achieved. Here are excerpts
of his speech, which also dealt with the engineering community: One major shortcoming
that is being pointed out about our programme is that the graduates'
knowledge of English is not up to the expectations of industry.
The medium of instruction of the B.Sc. Engineering programme is
English. But there is no English requirement to enter the course
for local students even though they had their school education in
the Sinhala or Tamil medium. However, do you know that foreign students
seeking admission to our University are required to get an IELTS
score of 6.5 or a TOEFL score of 550 to enter into our B.Sc. Eng.
course? I know that it is a sensitive issue to have an entry requirement
in English to enter the Faculty. But we do have facilities for teaching
English here, and you are required to pass the First Year English
paper. Can't we ask
all Moratuwa University students have to get a TOEFL score of 550
before they graduate? Then none can argue about the English standard
of our graduates. Generally the
technical content of our degree programmes are not criticized by
the industry. However, if we can measure the standard of our students
against an internationally accepted standard like the GRE, then
we can really say that ours is a world-class university. As a first
step, can we say that all students graduating from Moratuwa will
have to obtain a minimum GRE of 600? Then we can really be considered
world class. International
acceptance of a University degree can be measured by the number
of foreign students seeking admission. When I look around I cannot
see a single foreign student in this audience. As the Vice Chairman
of the UGC I am aware that not a single foreign student applied
to do engineering at our universities. Shouldn't we aim at 10% of
foreign students in this university in the next five years? In the modern
world universities are open for 24 hours of the day and almost 365
days of the year. I am sure those of you who have friends or relations
studying in foreign universities would be already aware of this.
Teaching and learning can be much more effectively done if our system
also allowed a 24-hour working environment. Can we have the same
at the University of Moratuwa in the next five years? Our Chartered
Engineers occupy high positions in local industry as well as in
foreign countries. The B.Sc. Engineering degree you receive will
fulfil the educational requirements to become a Chartered Engineer. After four
years of supervised training, and responsible experience after graduation
and passing the professional review, you will be in a position to
become a Chartered Engineer. We are in the process of getting international recognition, so that similar professional engineering institutions in the USA, UK, Canada Australia, New Zealand, Japan will soon accept the Chartered Engineer qualification of the IESL as equivalent to their Charter. Our aim is to benchmark the Sri Lankan Engineering Charter with leading nations in the world. SLAAQP
to hold national convention on Aug. 23 The Quality
Circle Championship has already received a huge response with 14
organizations desiring to take part. Some organizations are sending
more than one Quality Circle to compete for the championship. The
response for the Kaizen Slogan Competition and the Poster Competition
have also been very much higher than the previous year, the association
said. The convention
will be held in four concurrent streams as follows: technical papers
on success stories pertaining to quality and productivity initiatives,
Quality Circle competition, Continuous Improvement team competition,
School Quality Circle competition, debate, poster competition and
Quiz. In Stream 1,
technical papers will include the following subjects by foreign
and local speakers: Successful implementation of the Balanced Scorecard,
Changing mindset through the Kaizen suggestion system, Reaching
Excellence in 5S, Creating a high performance organization through
HR initiatives and implementing a systematic productivity improvement
programme in an export industry. Those interested in participating in any of the events or competitions could get details from the SLAAQP Secretariat at 25, Fife Road, Colombo 5 or by email- qpasl@slt.lk. Pan
Asia Bank under re-organisation Bank chairman
Abeyrathne Bandara, said in a press statement, the bank made an
operating profit in the first and second quarters of 2003 and has
prudently provided for non-performing advances conforming to Central
Bank requirements. "We have
taken steps to reengineer our operations and organizational structure.
The Bank will have two teams working on specific target groups,
Corporate and Retail Banking whilst enhancing fee-based income using
the market opportunities available. The bank has taken steps to
infuse new thinking and corporate culture. The Board of Directors
of the bank has appointed a young dynamic Deputy CEO to implement
new strategies," he said. He said the
bank plans to fund its expansion programme through the infusion
of more equity capital and loans up to Rs. 500 million during the
year. The bank proposes
to make a debenture issue that will realise Rs. 400 million before
end 2003. It also plans to go public and be listed in the Colombo
Stock Exchange in early 2004. Samarasinghe
takes over as new COO at Richard Pieris He began his
career at Richard Pieris in 1991 as Manager Corporate Planning when
he set up the Corporate Planning Unit. In 1999 he was appointed
to the main Board of Directors and now serves on the Boards of a
number of Subsidiary and Associate Companies including listed companies
in the CSE. Samarasinghe is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants - UK and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration. He is currently the President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants -SL Division. Austrian
Airlines increases flights to Colombo The addition of another flight is a measure of faith placed on Sri Lanka's future potential as a tourist hub by this top European carrier, its local agents Browns Tours Ltd said. |
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