The Rajarata University of Sri Lanka was established on 7th of November 1995 under Section 21 of the Sri Lanka universities Act No. 16 of 1978 by amalgamating the resources of the Affiliated University Colleges in the Central, North Western and North Central Provinces. The main University is located at Mihintale, a world heritage site, 17 km from the city of Anuradhapura, once a well known centre of learning several centuries before the beginning of the Christian era.
Currently the University has five faculties – Faculty of Agriculture located at Puliyankulama, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Management Studies and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities located in the main campus at Mihintale and the Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences at Saliyapura. The decision to establish a new Faculty of Medicine of the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka in Anuradhapura was made by the Ministry of Higher Education in July 2006. The former Youth Ranger Training Centre at Saliyapura was identified as the site of the new faculty. The location is 7 km from the Anuradhapura General Hospital and 17 km from the main campus at Mihintale.
The first batch of 171 medical undergraduates from 22 districts of the island was enrolled in 2006. This included 38 students displaced from the Faculty of Medicine of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka. The first batch of MBBS graduates are passed out from the Faculty in 2012.
The work on the new Para-clinical building commenced in 2008 and new departments of Biochemistry, Parasitology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Forensic Medicine, Pathology and Community Medicine moved into the new Para-clinical complex in May 2010. The building of the clinical building to house the professorial units and wards, clinics and teaching areas commenced in 2009 and completed in February 2012, in time for the professorial appointments of the senior most batch of medical students. This multistoried building houses the departments of Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Psychiatry.
Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, was reaccredited by the Accreditation Unit of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) – A World Federation of Medical Education (WFME) recognised accreditation agency, for the period of five years from 24/02/2023 to 24/02/2028
