The University of Peradeniya (UoP) won the international category of the Partnership Excellence Award of Massey University of New Zealand. The award was presented by Massey University Vice Chancellor (VC)Prof Jan Thomasto UoP VC Prof Upul B. Dissanayake, recently, at a ceremony held at the Grand Millennium Hotel, Auckland, New Zealand. Massey’s School of Veterinary Science was successful in an application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Development group’s partnerships fund, to deliver a world-leading, transformational Veterinary Education Twinning (VET) project with the UoP’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science. Costing around US$ 2.2 million, the project was the first independently funded World Organisation for Animal Health VET project.

It consisted of a world-leading and complex curricula and pedagogy change project, where the UoP willingly embraced substantial change in, not just its Veterinary Undergraduate curriculum, but also how it is taught and how it interacts with industry stakeholders. “The new curriculum was approved by the University Grants Commission (UGC), which is significantly advancing the ambitious aspiration of both the UGC and the UoP to become a South Asian Regional Centre of VET excellence, and preparing them to apply for international accreditation,” the UoP said. “The partnership has also created a highly productive working relationship between the academic partners with growing Massey PhD enrolments for Sri Lanka in the past 3 years,” the UoP added. UoP’s Head of the Department of Farm Animal Production & Health, Prof Anil Pushpakumara, and Head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Science, Dr. Nayana Wijewardhana, also participated on this occasion.