Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), as one of top rated higher educational institute in Sri Lanka, has recognised the rising need of innovative, analytical and critically thinking individuals and have open up their doors for anyone with the ambition of becoming a performing professional and a performing leader . Recognised by the University Grants Commotion as a leading non-state degree awarding institute, SLIIT is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) as well as the International Association of Universities (IAU).SLIIT is also the first Sri Lankan institute to be accredited by the Intuition of Engineering & Technology in UK (IET). To shed the more light on the topic, Professor Rahula Attalage, the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research of SLIIT gave his ideas about the SLIIT’s postgraduate programmes of MSc, MBA, MPhil & PhD degree programmes and the Open Day at SLIIT, which will be held on 24th Novmber.

What is the educational philosophy of SLIIT and SLIIT MSc programmes?

As a top rated knowledge hub and a mastery of skills, the SLIIT is devoted to advance knowledge, foster and promote innovation, to enrich lives and to broaden horizons of scholars under their wing. As for the postgraduate degrees, the SLIIT Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, create a learning and research environment for our students and staff to be innovative and dedicated to excellence. Also our Postgraduate programmes are designed to produce graduates with strong analytical, problem solving and communication skills to serve our nation and beyond. As a whole our postgraduate programmes fall under two categories of Taught and Research based. Under the Researched based category, SLIIT offer MPhil and PhD degrees and our post graduate diplomas of MSc and MBA falls under the category of taught having a minor component of Research. With the rapid changes happening in the market place, the institute felt the need of a potential educational qualification along with the practical skills needed for the industry.

With this intention, SLIIT introduced a series of postgraduate diploma and MSc degree programmes including Information Technology, Information Management, Information Systems, Information Technology Specialising in Cyber Security and MSc degree in Information Technology Specialising in Enterprise Applications Development. Our MBA is a new programmes with an input to the programme from the Carleton University of Canada. These postgraduate diploma and MSc, MBA degree programmes are updated, capturing the in dynamic of the market place and broadening its horizons on academic research and innovation while it will also help to transfer the knowledge in to the underg raduate programmes as well.

How qualified is the SLIIT academic staff?

With an academic staff of 300 members, we have highly qualified teaching panel including 75 PhD degree holders from top end universities around the world. As the academy of SLIIT is in partnership with many international institutes including Australia, Canada and UK, many of our lecturers are exposed and experienced not only in academic knowledge but also in research based studies. Most of their quality assurance and monitoring mechanisms of conducting the academic programmes are up to the level of international standers which will ensure the quality of all the postgraduate degree programmes. In order to promote and encourage our instructors at SLIIT, several strategic measures have been taken. These range from providing institute level research grants for conducting potentially high-end research, travel grants for staff to present their research findings at international conferences and to the level of SLIIT’s Honorary Professors Network used as an effective complementary platform for providing foreign supervisors in conducting related research envisaging joint research with foreign collaborations.

What kind of career opportunities will the students get from completing an MSc degree?

Our graduates have been recognised globally, for their potentials as professional leaders in the industry. Many of our graduates have become world renowned CEO’s and performing leaders in industrial companies in Sri Lanka. Because SLIIT graduates have their employable skills and are ready to face their corporate challenges from day one, our institute has created a good impression in the job market for the employment skills and capabilities of our graduates. With a modern networking infrastructure, SLTI also provides students the opportunity and a valuable experience in working environment for some selected students will be given the opportunity to work in this facility by engaging themselves in innovative research and development projects.

What kind of facilities the institute offers for the students?

Other than the highly qualified in house lecturers with industrial experience and proper academic background complemented as appropriately by the expertise from the Honorary Professor Network, SLIIT provides the best quality infrastructure facilities. This includes computer labs, laboratory facilities and library facilities subscribed to the top information facilities and e-recourses. Also known as the Conceptnursery, Sri Lanka Technology Incubator (SLTI) is located in the premises of Malabe SLIIT Campus to assist and promote innovators and start-up companies. SLTI is a resource centre that provides infrastructure facilities including, international industry contacts, communication facilities and much more.

Why an OPEN DAY?

Rather than getting all these information on newspapers or through Social media, SLIIT thought it would be more approachable for prospective students if they were given the opportunity to directly meet the academic staff and to have one to one meetings to get to know more about the programmes together with direct answers to their concerns about future career opportunities. With this intention SLIIT OPEN DAY will be held on the 24th Novmber 2018, at SLIIT Metro Campus. This would be a golden opportunity for interested candidates to learn more about research studies and to get an idea about the strengths and other possible opportunities in SLIIT Postgraduate programmes. Also this would be a successful attempt by SLIIT to help students to make more informative and accurate decisions about their higher studies.

Thishana M. Rajanayake