Special post-grad degree programmes for local Masters and PhD students
View(s):New Masters, Phd and Double Doctorate degrees made available through MoU signed with high-ranking Maastricht University
The University of Sri Jayewardenepura has offered a unique gateway for postgraduate degrees (M. Phil/PhD) in Europe and Australia, creating Double Doctorate (DD), Double-PhD/M. Phil opportunities for Sri Lankan students, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with several foreign universities through the World Class University Project.
A Doctorate (PhD) in Neuroscience was awarded to Printha Wijesinghe by the faculty of health, medicine and life sciences of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, after the MoU was signed between the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and the European Graduate School of Neuroscience (EURON). This is a new chapter in the field of Doctoral studies in Sri Lanka.
Maastricht University has a World University Ranking of 121 and was given sixth place in the 2020 ranking for the best young universities in the world, by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Maastricht University’s faculty of health, medicine and life sciences is the principal coordinator of EURON. The MoU signed with EURON would be inclusive to all associated EURON partner universities.
The MoU was signed on behalf of EURON and the Sri Jayewardenepura University by EURON’s School for Mental Health and Neuroscience Director Harry Steinbusch and former Sri Jayewardenepura University Vice Chancellor N. L. A. Karunaratne, on December 09, 2013.
The doctoral work was carried out at the Sri Jayewardenepura University’s Genetic Diagnostic & Research Laboratory and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India. The study included 76 human ageing brain samples from Sri Lanka, and 42 such samples from India.
This was the largest and the most comprehensive study on ageing pathologies such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, performed across two countries in South Asia: India and Sri Lanka.
The study screened for neurodegenerative and stroke pathologies, and genotyping for selective cardiovascular candidate genes, using molecular genetics techniques.
This PhD study was a collaboration between Maastricht University, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in India, the Seoul National University in South Korea and the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.
Professor Ranil de Silva was the Principal Supervisor for the study and he was the corresponding author of the study’s research paper which appeared in several distinguished journals, such as The Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Current Alzheimer Research, The Journal of Chemistry and Neuro-anatomy and The Lancet Neurology. He is the current director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Innovation in Biotechnology and Neuroscience at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura’s faculty of medical sciences.
Together with the untiring efforts and dedication of then PhD student, Ms Printha, Prof. de Silva was instrumental in setting up the first human brain bank in Sri Lanka, which supports neuroscience research and links Eastern and Western countries for bio-banking.