General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University
General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University 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. 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.
History
The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy was inaugurated on 11 October 1980 on a 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. On 11 October 2007 KDA was renamed as the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.
KDU opened its southern campus at Sooriyawewa, Sri Lanka on 5 May 2015.
In October 2015 the KDU began to enrol paying students from foreign militaries starting with a batch of technical officers from Oman Navy.
In 2018, parliament of Sri Lanka passed the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University 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.
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 are sent to their military academies.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 in Aeronautical Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Electronic Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Mechatronic Engineering
- Graduate Studies
- *PhD/MPhil
- *Master of Science in Management
- *Master of Science in Information Technology
- *Master of Business Administration in Logistics Management
- *Master of Business Administration in E-governance
- 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
- *Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery
- Research and Development
- Allied Health Sciences
- *Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy
- *Bachelor of Science in Nursing
- *Bachelor of Science in Radiography
- *Bachelor of Science in Radiotherapy
- *Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Sciences
- *Bachelor of Pharmacy
- Computing
- *Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
- *Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering
- *Bachelor of Science in Information Technology
- *Bachelor of Science in Information Systems
- Built Environment and Spatial Sciences
- *Bachelor of Architecture
- *Bachelor of Science in Built Environment
- *Bachelor of Science in Built Environment
- *Bachelor of Science in Quantity Surveying
- *Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science
- *Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science
Accredited institutions
- Army School of Logistics - Master of Business Administration in Logistics Management, for the successful participants of the Logistics Staff Course.
- Naval and Maritime Academy - Master of Business Administration in Logistics Management, for the successful participants of the Long Logistics Management Course.
- Naval and Maritime Academy - Post Graduate Diploma in Defence Management, for the successful participants of the Junior Naval Staff Course.
Commandants/ Vice Chancellors
List of Vice Chancellors are as follows:
- Major General Milinda Peiris RWP RSP VSV USP LOM ndc psc -
- Major General Sumith Balasuriya, USP, ndc, IG, SLA 2007-2008
- Major General Sumith Balasuriya, USP, ndc, IG, SLA
- Major General Nanda Mallawaarachchi, RWP, VSV, USP, ndc, psc
- Rear Admiral Nandana Thuduwewatte
- commodore M. L. Mendis
Anthem
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