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

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