BIOGRAPHY

Professor Chandrika N Wijeyaratne assumed duties as the 18^th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo on 12^th April 2019. She is an alumnus and an academic in Reproductive Medicine and Endocrinology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo since 1993. She is Senior Professor since 2010, having qualified with MBBS Second Class (Upper) Honours (1983), M.D Internal Medicine (1989) and Doctor of Medicine by Research (2003) from the University of Colombo. It was indeed serendipitous that Prof Wijeyaratne, the third academic from the medical faculty to hold the Office of the Vice Chancellor, led the University to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of its pioneering faculty, the Faculty of Medicine.

In addition to being a Commonwealth Fellow (1999-2000), she was elected as Fellow of the Ceylon College of Physicians and Royal College of Physicians London, and was awarded honorary fellowships by Sri Lanka College of Endocrinologists, College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka and the Association of Physicians of India.

Professor Wijeyaratne was the first Endocrinologist in Sri Lanka to be appointed to an academic position, and has the distinction of being a pioneer Physician in Women’s Health (Obstetric Medicine and Reproductive Endocrinology) in the South Asian region. With teaching experience exceeding 30 years she has left her mark on medical and postgraduate education by helping in the development of an innovative medical school curriculum and in inspiring a large number of trainees to enter the field of Endocrinology. She attends on women with complex endocrinopathies and serves as a clinical consultant for all pregnant women with severe endocrine and medical complications. Her contributions to the field of Endocrinology was celebrated internationally with the prestigious Laureate Award for International Excellence in 2017 by the Endocrine Society of USA – in its centenary year; the only such award to date for South Asia. This award in particular recognized Professor Wijeyaratne’s internationally pioneering work on the ethnic variations of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and her successful efforts to transform the management of diabetes in pregnancy in a resource limited setting. Read More>>

• University Ranking:
  Sri Lanka: UoC reached No 1 in Webometrics & SCIMAGO
  Global: UoC upgraded to 801+ (from 1000+), Clinical & Health Sciences upgraded to 400+ (from 600+) in Times Higher Education (THE)
• Executive President 2019 Asian Universities Alliance.
• Chair, Regional Committee for South Asia, Association of Commonwealth Universities since 2020.
• Commemorated 150 years at the Faculty of Medicine in 2020 & the Centenary Faculty of Science, Arts, & the Library on 21.1.2021 successfully amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Two new UoC development plans are included in the Budget Speech 2021/2022 (Cancer Research and Agro-entrepreneurship).
• Establishment of Faculty of Engineering, UoC and obtained approval from UGC in 2021.
• Bioengineering course developed in-house by UoC scientists (1^st time in Sri Lanka), 2021.
• Initiated Research Collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Cornell University, USA.
• Plans submitted to UGC – Upgrade Institute of Indigenous Medicine to a Faculty.
• Expansion of UCIARS: Acquired 250 acres of land in Lunugamwehera for value-added education and private-public-producer-partnership at UCIARS, Weligatte.
• Streamlined Sri Palee Campus.
• Gave leadership for UoC’s digital transformation and online pedagogy – best performing university amidst COVID19 pandemic and despite the metropolitan locality.
• Optimized student intake from AL 2019, and increased annual intake by 550+ students.
• Increased visibility of academic programs to woo international students.
• Restructured UoC Career Guidance – “Train the Trainer Behavioural Skills” of UoC staff and “Future Careers Bridge” with SLASSCOM via MBA Alumni.
• Refurbished College House and requested its recognition as a Heritage Building.
• Commenced environmentally friendly initiatives (solar power, water conservation, solid waste disposal, plastic-polythene free and in-house landscaping).
• Reviewed (mega-project) Faculty of Medicine 17-storied building– and instituted a plan for self-generation of funds to meet the estimated high maintenance costs at least in part.
• Help-zone building in progress solely with generated funds, with a business plan, prepared.
• Muttiah hostel part was exchanged for a 144 apartment condominium, without any form of student-staff agitation through dialogue and transparency.
• Strengthened Research Management (Policy, Funding, Visibility in a holistic manner).
• Prioritized Multidisciplinary Research mapped to the SDGs.
• Improved opportunities for student scholarships (Rhodes, Chevening, Mitsubishi).
• Steered UoC’s Discipline & Rule for Law as one community with a single purpose.
• Introduced plagiarism checks and awareness of predatory publishing among students and academics.
• Introduced Enterprise Resource Planning for Human Resource Management.
• Finance Management: The Annual Report of UoC has been recognized by the UGC and Ministry of Higher Education to be the most efficient reporting to parliament.
• Accepted Government Land Vested -13 acres block of prime land in Tangalle Divisional Secretariat to develop Open & Experiential Learning Centre Campus of UoC.