General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) located at Kandawala, Ratmalana, Colombo, is a joint services academy where cadets of the three wings Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force are trained before they go for their pre-commission training to their academies. Established in 1980 as the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy, named after General Sir John Kotelawala, 3rd Prime Minister of Ceylon; it was elevated to the status of a university by an amendment bill passed in Parliament on 11 October 2007.[1] In 2018, the parliament of Sri Lanka passed a special provisions act to abolish SAITM Medical faculty and to transfer the students to General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.[2]

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University

Mottoසිය රටටමයි කවදත්
(“For The Motherland Forever”)
TypeMilitary University
Established11 October 2007
ChancellorGeneral G. H. De Silva, RWP, VSV, USP
Vice-ChancellorMajor General Milinda Peiris RWP RSP VSV USP ndc psc MPhil (Ind) PGDM
Undergraduates1500
Postgraduates50
Location
Ratmalana, Colombo
,

Sri Lanka
CampusKDU Ratmalana, KDU Southern Campus, KDU University Teaching Hospital
NicknameKDU
AffiliationsSouth Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine, Association of Commonwealth Universities
Websitewww.kdu.ac.lk

History

The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy (the Defence University of Sri Lanka) was inaugurated on 11 October 1980 on a 48-acre (190,000 m2) estate donated by the late General Sir John Kotelawala, CH, KBE, LLD, a former Prime Minister of Ceylon. The KDU functions under the motto For The Motherland Forever, a dictum followed by General Sir John Kotelawala himself.

The KDA was instituted with the objective of educating males and females to be commissioned officers in the armed forces of Sri Lanka. It has been legally established under the Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy Act No. 68 of 1981 and is governed by a Board of Management consisting of the Secretary of the Defence as the chairman, Commanders of the tri-services, representatives of the University Grant Commission and the General Treasury, and the Commandant of the academy as members.

From 1980 to 1986, a temporary arrangement was made for Service Officer Cadets follow courses in engineering and physical science at the University of Colombo and University of Moratuwa, and they were awarded the degree by the same universities. Later, KDA was elevated to university status subsequent to proposal made to the then government headed by the President J.R. Jayewardene, thus enabling KDA to offer degrees in Defence Studies. Today, the KDU is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, United Kingdom.

An amendment bill was passed in Parliament on 18 March 2007 granting the status of a state university to the KDA.[3] On 11 October 2007 KDA was renamed as the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.[4]

KDU opened its southern campus at Sooriyawewa, Sri Lanka on 5 May 2015.[5]

In October 2015 the KDU began to enrol paying students from foreign militaries starting with a batch of technical officers from Oman Navy.[6]

In 2018, parliament of Sri Lanka passed the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (Special Provisions) Act to abolish Medical faculty of South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine and to transfer the students to General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.[7][8]

Academic wing

The degree courses at the KDU run for two to five years. The officer cadets follow a course of study from the fields of medicine, law, engineering, management and technical sciences, commerce or arts. At the end of the second year, the officer cadets (other than the Engineering cadets who stay to complete their third-year studies) are sent to their military academies (Sri Lanka Military Academy, Diyatalawa; Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee; Air Force Academy, SLAF China Bay).

Since 2012 the university was opened for non-military students under a payment scheme. These students are allowed to enjoy the academic and other facilities that were available for cadets before.

Academic work is conducted under the direction of the Board of Studies and Board of Management by the Director of Academic Studies. There are eight academic departments. Each department consist of a Head of the Department, internal/visiting staff, and the library.

Faculties
  • Defence Studies and Strategic Studies
  • Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Aeronautical Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Biomedical Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Civil Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Marine Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mechatronic Engineering
  • Graduate Studies
  • Law
    • Bachelor of Laws
  • Management, Social Sciences and Humanities
    • Bachelor of Science in Logistics Management
    • Bachelor of Science in Management and Technical Sciences
    • Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences
  • Medicine
  • Research and Development
  • Allied Health Sciences
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Physiotherapy
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Nursing
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Radiography
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Radiotherapy
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Medical Laboratory Sciences
    • Bachelor of Pharmacy
  • Computing
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computer Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computer Science
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Software Engineering
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Information Technology
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Information Systems
  • Built Environment and Spatial Sciences
    • Bachelor of Architecture
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Built Environment
    • Bachelor of Science in Built Environment
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Quantity Surveying
    • Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science
    • Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Spatial Science

Accredited institutions

Following institutions have been accredited to the KDU to conduct academic programs;

  • Army School of Logistics - Master of Business Administration in Logistics Management, for the successful participants of the Logistics Staff Course (LSC).
  • Naval and Maritime Academy - Master of Business Administration in Logistics Management, for the successful participants of the Long Logistics Management Course (LLMC).
  • Naval and Maritime Academy - Post Graduate Diploma in Defence Management, for the successful participants of the Junior Naval Staff Course.

Commandants/ Vice Chancellors

KDA was renamed as KDU in year 2007 and until such time Chief Executive officer was the Commandant. However in 2007 after renaming as Kotelawala Defence University, Vice Chancellor is the Chief Executive of the University.

List of Vice Chancellors are as follows:

List of Commandants are as follows:

Anthem

දෑ අනුරාගෙන් ප්‍රාණ ප්‍රබෝධිත
සිය රටටම කවදත් කැප අප වෙත
ශිල්ප ශාස්ත්‍ර සංග්‍රාම තාක්ෂණ
ඥාණ විභූෂණ ශික්ෂණ දානී
ශ්‍රීමත් කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක
සරසවි ලංකා ධරණී ජයතූ

ත්‍රිවිධ හමුදා ජීවය විදහා
දෙස රැක ගැනුමට ජය ධජ නැගුමට
දෑ අභිමානෙන් පෙරට තබන පා
සතුරන් මැඩ මිස නොගනිමු ආපසු
දිවි දෙමු සාමයෙ කුසුම් පිපෙන තුරු
ඒ කුසුමෙන් ලක්මව සැනසෙන තුරු

දෑ අනුරාගෙන් ප්‍රාණ ප්‍රබෝධිත
සිය රටටම කවදත් කැප අප වෙත
ශිල්ප ශාස්ත්‍ර සංග්‍රාම තාක්ෂණ
ඥාණ විභූෂණ ශික්ෂණ දානී
ශ්‍රීමත් කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක
සරසවි ලංකා ධරණී ජයතූ

රචනය: ආචාර්‍ය එච් එස් එස් නිශ්ශංක
සංගීතය: විශාරද ආචාර්‍ය ප්‍රේමසිරි කේමදාස

See also

References
  1. Annual Report of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University - 2013 (PDF). Sri Lanka: General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University. 2013. p. 1.
  2. https://www.srilankalaw.lk/gazette/2018_pdf/17-2018_E.pdf
  3. KDA becomes University, Bill passed in Parliament
  4. "President inaugurates General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University". Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  5. Ceremonial Opening of KDU Southern Campus at Sooriyawewa
  6. "economynext.com". www.economynext.com. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  7. https://www.srilankalaw.lk/gazette/2018_pdf/17-2018_E.pdf
  8. http://www.lawlanka.com/lal/actShortTitleView?selectedAct=2018Y0V0C17A&actTitle=General%20sir%20john%20kotelawala%20defence%20university%20%20%20(special%20provisions)%20act&year=2018

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