Dean’s Request

Generous donors and well-wishers, 

The Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences (FMAS), Rajarata University of Sri Lanka has excelled in persevering with academic activities despite many challenges specific to the faculty and delivering high-quality medical education. The faculty is a shining example of thriving in rural geography far from the main economic and education hubs of Sri Lanka through the sheer dedication and commitment of all stakeholders. The challenges faced by the faculty include but are not limited to the shortage of academic staff and physical resources since its inception. Though the faculty was initially planned to cater for 120 students per batch of students and the present academic staff is only adequate for a batch of 70 students, the number of students in a batch was increased to 210, without developing the physical and human resources adequately. The Accreditation Unit of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has recommended limiting the student intake considering the available physical and human resources or improving the resources.

Despite these challenges, the MBBS degree programme of FMAS received a higher level B grade at the Programme Review conducted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) – Sri Lanka in 2019 and the accreditation from Sri Lanka Medical Council in 2023. In addition to the commitment of the staff, a peaceful environment and zero-ragging status of the faculty was a strength in achieving these goals.

At present the lecture halls, classrooms, and laboratories of the FMAS are insufficient to cater for the current batches of 210 students and adhere to the minimum standards of medical education and SLMC recommendations. The FMAS currently has only two permanent buildings; the Paraclinical building located at the Saliyapura premises and the professorial unit located in the Teaching Hospital, Anuradhapura. All other lecture halls and classrooms are located in old-teacher training centre-era buildings, grossly insufficient to cater for the current student numbers.  To solve these issues, the construction of a new preclinical building complex was started in  2019 aiming to finish by the year 2022 facilitating the pre-clinical years of the MBBS program. This building is expected to solve basic and essential infrastructure problems of the faculty that include examination halls, lecture halls, tutorial rooms, laboratories, museums, essential study areas for students relevant to the entire MBBS program, space for the pre-clinical departments as well as the administrative spaces for the entire faculty such as faculty board room and the dean’s office. If this building is not completed by the end of 2023, the FMAS will face a serious issue in adhering to the minimum standards of medical education stipulated by the gazette “Maintenance of Minimum Standards of Medical Education (26/01/2018)” as well as the recommendations by the SLMC.

Construction work of the building was affected by the COVID pandemic and the present economic crisis. Though the university administration and higher authorities committed their best to fund this preclinical building project, the present economic situation of the country negatively affected the cash flow from government sources and made it an almost impossible task. 

Amidst all these challenges, more than 80% of the construction work of the building has been completed to date. We expect your generous financial support to complete the construction work of the building.

Your support in maintaining the quality of medical education in Sri Lanka is greatly appreciated.

Thank you