Vavuniya University visit: President receives warm welcome

COLOMBO: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared the Vavuniya Campus, affiliated to the Jaffna University, as a state university named ‘Vavuniya University’.

Accordingly, the institution will be considered the 17th state university in Sri Lanka.

The Faculty of Applied Sciences, the Faculty of Business and the English Language Unit affiliated to the University of Jaffna were established in 1997 as the Vavuniya Campus.

The students and the lecturers have been requesting for a long time to upgrade the Vavuniya Campus to a National University.

Taking this into consideration, the government developed the University of Vavuniya as a smart university with modern facilities including lecture halls, faculty buildings and playgrounds under the Higher Education Development Program in line with the National Policy Framework ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour,’ the President’s Media Division said.

The PMD statement added that President Rajapaksa was accorded a warm welcome by the residents of the area gathered at the Vavuniya University hostel grounds.

He has engaged in a cordial discussion with the residents and inquired about the issues pertaining to the area.

The Head of State unveiled the plaque marking the upgrading of the Vavuniya Campus into a National University and handed over the University’s Centre for Information Technology and the Centre for Coexistence to students.

The President, expressing his views with the students of the Faculty of Information Technology, said that if one could convey the gained knowledge to his or her own region, it would be of great service to their village and the country.

Addressing the gathering, President Rajapaksa said the government hopes to create intellectuals who are resilient to future social changes, through education.