In a landmark effort aimed at revolutionising higher education for students and professionals within the country, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) launched its very own campus on Thursday which will offer the highly reputed BSc. Applied Accounting Degree, with plans afoot to also introduce several new Bachelor’s Degrees as well as a Master’s Degree.
The Scholars of Accounting and Business (SAB) Campus of CA Sri Lanka located in Colombo 4 was declared open on Thursday, 09th December 2021 by Dr. Bandula Gunawardana, Minister of Trade in the presence of Mr. Manil Jayesinghe, President of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Sanjaya Bandara, Vice President of CA Sri Lanka, Past Presidents and Council Members of CA Sri Lanka, Ms. Dulani Fernando, Chief Executive Officer of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Pradeep Alexander, Director of SAB, and other distinguished invitees.
The fully-fledged state of the art campus will provide a host of modern services and facilities including a fully functional IT lab, air-conditioned lecture halls, library, sporting facilities and cafeteria. The campus which can accommodate over 800 students, will be further supplemented by a highly experienced lecture panel comprised of state-level university lecturers.
The BSc. Applied Accounting degree offered by CA Sri Lanka has become one of the most sought-after accounting degrees in the country, with a student population of over 2000. The degree is approved by the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Higher Education.
A key feature of the BSC. Applied Accounting degree offered by CA Sri Lanka since 2013 is a guarantee of employability at leading organisations upon successful completion of the programme, thereby making it one of the most popular finance degrees in the country. At present, 720 students who graduated to date are successfully employed at leading organisations, including top corporates.
Following the overwhelming response for the BSc. Applied Accounting Degree, CA Sri Lanka decided to launch a fully-fledged campus, to provide a wider variety of academic programmes for students and professionals.
Apart from the highly successful BSc. Applied Accounting degree, the new campus is also set to launch several other new degrees including a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) as well as a BSc. in Human Resource Management (Honours) Degree, BSc. in Marketing Management (Honours) Degree and BSc. in Business Analytics (Honours) Degree, upon receiving approval from the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Higher Education.
Minister Bandula Gunawardena said that CA Sri Lanka in its standing as a leading professional organisation has always assured quality education that is accessible to all which is accustomed to social needs and individual development. “I highly appreciate the efforts taken by CA Sri Lanka to develop the infrastructure facilities as a step to ensure a quality learning experience.”
He said that with standards of education becoming more competitive all over the world during the last decade in the backdrop of technological advances and globalisation, the Government of Sri Lanka is also committed to ensure quality education with more infrastructure facilities from primary to tertiary level with a view to making a knowledge-based society incorporated with technological and soft skills.
President of CA Sri Lanka Mr. Manil Jayesinghe said that the BSc. Applied Accounting Degree was launched in 2013 to bridge the growing gap in the dearth of university-level education in the country due to the limited number of intakes at state universities. “Degrees are an important requirement. Therefore, CA Sri Lanka became the first professional body in the country to launch a degree alongside our very own globally recognised professional qualification in Chartered Accounting,” he said.
Due to the overwhelming success since the launch of the Applied Accounting Degree, Mr. Jayesinghe noted that CA Sri Lanka decided to spread its wings further by establishing a campus, which will offer multiple degrees and masters’ degrees covering a variety of subjects.
Vice President of CA Sri Lanka, Mr. Sanjaya Bandara, highlighted that the new CA Sri Lanka Campus aims to become the preferred destination for education in Sri Lanka by offering a variety of contemporary courses under one roof, which are all recognised not just locally but also across the world.
“CA Sri Lanka is today recognised as the preferred destination for accounting education, and our mission is to go beyond this and offer yet another world-class educational institute that will continue to provide our youth and professionals in the country the best of the best qualifications, not just in accounting but also in business administration, human resources, marketing and business analytics,” he said.