Sampath Amaratunge

Amaratunge was appointed dean of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, in 2008. He was responsible for many changes that took place, among which were the establishment of departments, centres and programmes, and units. He founded the Department of Entrepreneurship, computer resource centre, a PhD programme, the Business Communication Unit, and established a legal unit linking management studies with law during his tenure as the Dean.

Amaratunge started the faculty journal Management Review and was made the "change agent" in 1993 of International Conference on Business Management (ICBM). He was also responsible for the introduction of the faculty symposium, which is held twice a year in the faculty, and introduced a Faculty Development Fund to develop the resources, equipment and infrastructure of the university.

He continued his position as dean of the faculty until November 2014, when he became the vice-chancellor of the university.[10]

Amaratunge is currently the twice-appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He first assumed the position in November 2014 when he was appointed by Mahinda Rajapaksa. In November 2017 he was re-appointed as vice-chancellor to serve a second term by Maithripala Sirisena. During his first term he formulated two new faculties for the University of Sri Jayewardenepura: the Faculty of Engineering[11][12] and the Faculty of Technology.[11][12] In his second term he founded the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences.[13][14]

He introduced a number of new departments including: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice,[15] Department of Sociology, Department of Anthropology, Department of English Language Teaching,[16] Department of Philosophy and Psychology,[17] Department of Sports Science,[17] Department of Allied Health Science,[18] and the Department of Polymer Science.[19]

He reorganised the Research and Publication Committee of the university to the level of a council with twenty five research centres.[20]

In 2018, Amaratunge founded the Invention Innovation and Venture Creation Council (IIVCC) at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura to bridge the link between the university and the industry.[21] At present the IIVCC has 50 start-ups registered[22] and over 15 patent holders.[23] The IIVCC operates as a council where students and university staff work collaboratively to develop new inventions and innovations. In early 2019 an exhibition, Innovate 2019, was held to showcase the inventions, innovations, and ventures.[24][25][26][27]

Amaratunge signed more than 60 MoU's collaborating with many locally and internationally acclaimed institutes. The hostel occupancy of the university has been increased by over 50%[28] and several infrastructural developments have been made.[29]

Amaratunge was appointed chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Directors for 2019.[5]

He was elected as a member representing constituency II of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) in 2019, which consists of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.[6][7]