SLIIT Students Published in Globally Acclaimed Journals with 300 H-index (SJR)
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- Dr. Ruwan Jayathilaka, Head, Department of Information Management, SLIIT Business School/ MBA Coordinator, SLIIT
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- Venuri Mallikarachchi
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- Sheron Joachim
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- Dhanushka Ranawaka
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- Nishali Perera
SLIIT Business School is the leading education entity in Sri Lanka, recognized for its excellence in higher education and its renown among the corporate community. The distinctive educational scope offered is a portal to the multifaceted business environment of the modern world.
Four exemplary students, Venuri Mallikarachchi, Dhanushka Ranawaka, Nishali Perera and Sheron Joachim supervised by Dr. Ruwan Jajathilaka – belonging to the SLIIT Business School and majoring in Accounting and Finance received due recognition for their collective thesis published as two articles in two reputed, world renowned journals. Considered a rare achievement at the undergraduate level; the topics centered on the following topics; ‘Do chronic illnesses and poverty go hand in hand?’ and ‘Chronic diseases: An added burden to income and expenses of chronically-ill people in Sri Lanka.’
The scores consisted of CiteScore equaling 5.2 (top 10 %), 300 H Index (Scimago) in Q1 category and 175 H Index (Google scholar h5-index).
Professor Samantha Thelijjagoda, Dean of SLIIT Business School stated, “We are immensely proud of the students who have brought this honour to the institute and the Motherland. The ground-breaking achievement has been acknowledged not merely by one but two renowned journals, which lays claim to the superior quality of its content. Since inception, it has been the goal of SLIIT to foster innovative learning methodologies which will eventually draw the student into his or her greatest potential.”
The group of friends initially banded together for group assignments in the formative years of their degree programme. However, realisation dawned that the synergy of ideas and work produced outstanding results. Inevitably they continued to work together as a team in their final research. “A thorough discussion we had with our Research Supervisor gave us an insight on studying further on chronic illnesses and the impact it has on the poverty level of the Sri Lankan community as it is a largely unexplored area in the Sri Lankan context. Initially we studied over 150 high graded past publications done all over the world to get more information and insight on the area of our focus. We considered this research area to be very significant as globally, the health and quality of life of many citizens have been affected by various Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) where more than two thirds of deaths are caused by a certain type of chronic disease. Hence, the gap of this area of this particular study had not been explored in-depth, sparking an interest within us,” revealed the students.
How was the data collected?
We used secondary data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) using a sample of 25,640 housing units covering all the 25 Districts in the country.
Director General and the Deputy Director (Statistics) of the Department of Census and Statistics respectively, Dr. I.R. Bandara and Mr. S. M. H. N. Samarakoon supported us immensely in issuing us the HIES 2016 data set in in a short duration which was pivotal in executing our research-based study successfully.
Who were your strongest supporters at SLIIT?
This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the tremendous support and guidance given by our research supervisor, Dr. Ruwan Jayathilaka who is an amazing lecturer and mentor in the SLIIT Business School. From inception we were very keen to choose Dr. Ruwan Jayathilaka as our Supervisor as his reputation as an innovative thinker and internationally acclaimed luminary precedes him.
The weekly meetings and frequent conference calls even during the pandemic kept us going forward with the development of these articles as we had to make inevitable changes frequently and our supervisor never failed to equip us with his knowledge. “Work hard, dream big, and never give up,” were constantly ingrained into us by him which motivated us to work tirelessly to achieve our goals.
Secondly and most importantly we’d admire the great support our parents gave us by understanding and tolerating our mood swings and being our constant strength by showering their love and blessings over us throughout this journey which surely did help us to overcome tough and challenging times we had to face as a team.
The Department of Census and Statistics should be remembered as this research couldn’t have been executed if not for the data they provided in a very short period of time.
Our seniors at the SLIIT Business School were extremely supportive and assisted us by educating us on the basics of STATA- the statistical software we used to analyze the data which was a totally a new area for us to learn.
What’s the extent of support you got from the faculty and staff of SLIIT?
The Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor of SLIIT respectively, Prof. Lakshman Ratnayake, Prof. Lalith Gamage and Prof. Nimal Rajapakse and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies & Research, Prof. Rahula Attalage should be remembered for giving us the opportunity to conduct our research in this scope. We also extend our gratitude to the Dean of SLIIT Business School, Prof. Samantha Thelijjagoda and all the Heads of Departments of the faculty for the guidance given.
Most importantly we extend our heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Ruwan Jayathilaka for the immense support, motivation and knowledge shared throughout this journey. His encouragement and words of wisdom from the beginning drove us to a successful end of this journey. Without his constant guidance and support this publication would have remained as a dream.
Our sincere thanks and appreciation goes to the Module Leader of “Comprehensive Research Project”, Prof. Nagalingam Nagendrakumar for the constant guidance, knowledge and support given throughout the period of one whole year. He surely did make the lecture very exciting and interesting. We also remember our instructor for CRP, Miss Nipuni Wijesundara for her support and guidance akin to a friend assisting us constantly to make our research a success.
We also thank all the lecturers, instructors and the entire staff of the SLIIT Business School who extended us a helping hand in numerous ways to make these publications a reality.
What were some of challenges faced?
One of the main challenges we faced was to balance our work life since all of us were employed and on the other hand we had assignments, presentations, semester exams related to the course. Therefore, balancing everything simultaneously was challenging.
In your opinion how can you impact people with the work you have done? How do you intend to impact the world through this initiative?
The findings in our study can mainly impact the policy makers such as the government and insurance companies to develop policies and schemes to support patients suffering with various chronic diseases which may alleviate the financial burden and bring succor to the patient afflicted with NCD and their loved ones.
Moreover, our findings may impact the Sri Lankan medical bodies along with authorities in the South Asian context to realize the availability of medical facilities within their possession and take necessary actions to make medical facilities and medical drugs available for patients in order to prevent fatalities that may occur due to lack of facilities and medication required to keep the disease in control.
Dr. Ruwan Jayathilaka, Senior Lecturer (HG), Head of Department of Information Management at SLIIT Business School made these observations, “High-degree research and corresponding well-drafted manuscripts are the ones that will eventually win the competition. It is imperative to emphasize more on the quality of research rather than focusing on the quantity. Many submissions get rejected as journals belonging to Scopus, Scimago Web of Science data bases drew vigorous peer critique with the review process and the acceptance rate being considerably low.
Moreover, the top-tier journals acceptance rate is often less than 10%. Publishing a paper in such a journal is a remarkable achievement in one’s academic career. PLOS ONE journal in which we published two papers, comes under top 10% Scopus rank journal, 300H index of the Scimago rank, Q1 category of Scopus and 175 H index Google scholar journals. Thus, publishing two papers in journals of high caibre based on one undergraduate study was very challenging but was not impossible.”
A class above the rest, the SLIIT Business degrees are approved by the UGC under the Universities Act. The institute is also a Member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and International Association of Universities (IAU) as well as a Member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
The global alliances and affiliations formed through the years with prestigious universities worldwide, enables students to have a multitude of options connected to their chosen field of study – they could either complete the entire four (04) year UGC approved degree programme at SLIIT, or opt to follow the Liverpool John Moores University offshore programmes in Sri Lanka, right here at SLIIT. Students can also complete their degree at one of SLIIT’s partner universities in UK, USA, Canada and Australia.