Department of Economics make steady progress
The Department of Economics of the University of Colombo was established in 1967 along with some other departments of the Faculty of Arts. The first head of the department was Prof. Indrarathne. After that simple initiation the department is passing through a higher ground at the moment. Prof.W.D.Lak sh man the former vice chancellor of the University of Colombo and the former head of the Department of Economics is considered as the pioneer of the resurgence of high development of the department.
He initiated a development project with the financial support of the Netherlands. It was the turning point of the development of the extension programmes as well as human development at the Department of Economics.
Department of Economics of the University of Colombo is perhaps the best department in the university system of Sri Lanka in terms of highly qualified academic staff members, number of students following undergraduate and post graduate programmes, international collaboration, infrastructure development and financial sustainability.
The department has nearly 350 under graduates, 60 post graduate students, 250 Masters Students and over 60 Ph.D. students in Economics. The student population consists of local as well as foreign students including the ones from China and Nigeria. The department has 26 permanent staff members out of which 9 are professors. And nearly 20 of them have Ph.D.s.
In addition to undergraduate programmes the department started its post graduate education in 1984 along with the introduction of post graduate diploma in Economic Development programmes. Masters level education of the department started in 1997.
Now the department has 2 post graduate diploma programmes, 3 masters, one Ph.D. programme and a number of diplomas and certificate courses. Masters of Financial Economics and Master in Tourism are well sold among post graduate students. Similarly 2 year masters in Economics and the Ph.D. programmes have gained popularity among the students. The department conducts annual international conference in tourism economics with the participation of globally recognised professors and others in the industry.
In addition to that, the undergraduate students of the department annually participate in the South Asian Economics student conference. Similarly, department organises annual student related academic activities and guest lectures on current global and local issues.