The University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ) is setting sights on transforming itself into an entrepreneurial university upgrading itself from the present knowledge and research sharing model, the Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce (FMSC) Prof. U Anura Kumara said last week. According to experts, the model of the ‘entrepreneurial university’ is a major driver for self-development and innovation and viewed as an appropriate response to succeeding in highly turbulent and unpredictable markets.
“Our faculty has four key strategic objectives which we feel can transform us into an entrepreneurial university. However, on two key fronts such as the production of high quality human resources through the teaching and learning and enhancement of contribution to knowledge through Research and Publications, we have witnessed a marked improvement over the last three years,” the dean said.
He pointed out that the faculty is working on improving in the other two objectives namely - the contribution to community and national development and development and updating of resource management and administrative systems which will take the faculty to a different level.
“At the FMSC of USJ, we always try to maintain the quality of academic programs considering the industry and employer organisation’s inputs. This is why according to our research, the employability of our graduates has been consistently above the 85% mark at the time of convocation,” Dr. Kumara said.
Citing a recent research on graduate employability, the dean pointed out that employability rate of BSc/B.Com Special (Internal) graduates stood at 82% in 2017 and at 85% in 2016.
This employability figure, according to him, was at four months after graduation which is during the convocation. “Sometimes employer organizations want graduates with soft skills which we try to address.
We have a continuous curriculum review in the University whereby we review the curriculum every five years based on recommendations of a Curriculum Review and Development Committee which meets every month,” the Dean of the FMSC, Dr. Kumara said.
The FMSC at USJ is the pioneering and the largest management faculty in Sri Lanka with more than 50 years of history in management education consisting a student population of close to 5,000.