List of universities in Sri Lanka

History

The first institution of modern higher education in the island was established in 1921 as the University College Ceylon; even though there several institutions of vocational education before that. In 1942 the first university was established as the University of Ceylon with several campuses island wide, Colombo (established 1942), Peradeniya (established 1949), Vidyodaya (established 1959), Vidyalankara (established 1959) and Katubedda (established 1972). It was dissolved in 1972 to establish the University of Sri Lanka. Jaffna campus was added to the university in 1974. With the promulgation of the Universities Act. No 16 of 1978, state university status was restored to the 6 separate campuses. University Grants Commission (UGC) was also created to plan and coordinate the state university education. After that, a number of state universities were created. All these state universities are registered under the University Grants Commission, but a few come under the auspices of ministries other than the Ministry of Higher Education, in which the UGC is a part of.

Most of the state universities depend on funds given by the University Grants Commission, as it is their primary and sometimes only source of funding. Therefore, the UGC has a direct control over these universities and administer the undergraduate intake. The UGC is subordinate to the Ministry of Higher Education.

A few other public exist which function interdependently. The government has a stake in some of these institutions. The most prominent is the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, which is under Ministry of Higher Education. The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University was a similar institute but has since been classed as a state university, though it is under the control of the Ministry of Defence.

Universities

There are currently twenty universities in Sri Lanka, fifteen of which are under the authority of the University Grants Commission whilst the remaining five are under the authority of government ministries.

Colleges and institutes

Several colleges and specialist institutes are recognised as degree awarding bodies.

THE World University Rankings

The University of the Colombo is ranked 801 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Webometrics Rankings

2016 Webometrics Ranking of World Universities for Sri Lankan universities are listed below.