Keele University MSc celebrates 5 years in Sri Lanka

January 2006: The Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) just completed five years of a highly successful postgraduate collaboration with Keele University of UK. and held the convocation 2005, MSc in Information Technology recently at the BMICH. Prof. Ray Cocks, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Keele University declared the convocation open and he announced the Conferment of Degrees.

IIT gives an opportunity for Sri Lankan students to study Keele University’s MSc in Information Technology, right here in Sri Lanka. Before this landmark collaboration, Sri Lankan IT professionals who sought an overseas Postgraduate Qualification had to sacrifice their careers, some times even their family lives and had to proceed to a foreign land and spent huge overseas tuition fees.

The IIT- Keele collaboration changed all that. It allows a Sri Lankan student to follow the identical MSc that a Keele internal student follows, using the same learning material but from the comfort of their homes spending a mere fraction of the overseas tuition fee. What makes it most valuable is that at the end, the student gets the same degree certificate that an internal Keele student would get.

IIT, Sri Lanka’s oldest private academy for higher education has pioneered many landmark achievements in the domain of higher education in Sri Lanka. One of them is bringing the first British undergraduate degree to Sri Lanka in 1990. Continuing its pioneering spirit, in 2000, collaborating with Keele University, IIT brought the first British Postgraduate Degree to Sri Lanka
Keele University was recently ranked by Times UK as being at 31st among the best 99 British Universities making it the highest ranked British University to have a Postgraduate Collaboration in IT in Sri Lanka.

The best indication of the success of the programme is the fact that within a span of 5 years, eight intakes have been reading for the MSc and IT professionals from Sri Lanka’s top IT companies have graduated from the programme. The value of the programme is also reflected from the fact that quite a few international students from countries such as Malaysia and Pakistan have come IIT to read for the MSc.

In 2004, The British Quality Assurance Agency for higher education conducted a rigorous quality audit on the MSc programme and praised the programme while making comments such as, “The programme is vocationally relevant and delivered by well-qualified staff with a very student-centred approach”. Since almost all students who read for the MSc are working professionals, classes are only held during one weekend day and after hours in one-week day.

The MSc is being conducted at the Postgraduate centre of the Informatics Institute of Technology, which is located at a highly central location on Dharmapala Mawatha. The Postgraduate centre has all the facilities needed for an IT postgraduate facility including labs, lecture halls, reading rooms and a library..

Inspired by these successful five years, plans are now under way to bring additional masters programmes in to the collaboration involving IT, Finance and Management. Sri Lankan students who have a dream of obtaining a quality UK postgraduate degree from a Top 30 UK University, can expect a bouquet of postgraduate courses in the near future, which could be followed, without leaving the comfort of their motherland.