The reorganization of the contemporary workplace is occurring at a pace that is challenging our higher educational institutions, to educate the growing number of students and to re-define the nature of education needed.
The Department of Finance, University of Kelaniya proposed three major degree programs in the areas of banking, insurance and financial engineering to meet this need and it has been approved by the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka.
The Department of Finance will double its annual student intake for Banking and Insurance degrees from this year, a university statement said.
The special degree program - Bachelor of Business Management in Finance (B.B.Mgt Finance) in the English medium, introduced by the Department of Finance of the Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies (FCMS) of the University of Kelaniya, has so far produced around 240 graduates in six batches and at present 240 students are following this degree program. Based on the continuous interaction with finance industry and professional institutions such as the CFA Society of Sri Lanka and CFA Institute of the USA, the Department of Finance identified the potential areas of skills needed by the economy and delivered them up to the international standards.
In 2014, the Department of Finance obtained recognition from the CFA Institute, USA and became the first Sri Lankan degree program to be included in the CFA University recognition program.
Higher education will play an important role in Sri Lanka in leveraging the economic opportunities that will emerge as a result of new direction of the government to transform Colombo as an International Financial Centre and link it to the global financial market.
This will create more demand for University graduates in finance, banking, insurance and financial model building. Sri Lanka’s economic recovery will depend heavily on the knowledge work force prepared to meet this demand. Across the globe, education is seen as a primary catalyst for economic growth. As an emerging country we are more focusing on globalizing trends in our economy and the shift towards more globally connected and collaborative business models within the economy, the statement said.