PM to deliver 12th Sujata Jayawardena Oration today

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, a distinguished Alumnus of the University of Colombo, is scheduled to deliver the 12th Annual Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration today at the BMICH  at 5.30 p.m.

The Premier, who is the first and only Prime Minister of Sri Lanka produced by the Sri Lankan University system, will deliver this Oration on the topic “Strengthening Democratic Institutions.”

Speaking to the Daily FT, President of the Alumni Association of the Colombo University Rajeev Amarasuriya said that the University and the Association were honoured to have the Premier, an Alumnus of the University of Colombo, who had graduated from the Faculty of Law to deliver the Oration. He went on to state that the Oration by the Premier would provide first hand insight into the roadmap of the Government in re-building and defining the democratic structure in the Country.

This year’s oration is sponsored by NDB Bank PLC and Dialog Axiata PLC.

The Annual Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration, is a premier annual event hosted by the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo, in memory of its illustrious Past President the Late Mrs. Sujata Jayawardena who rendered an immense service to the University of Colombo,.

Under her stewardship, the Alumni Association set out to build closer and better relations between the University and its undergraduates by initiating many programs. Mrs. Jayawardena, realising that accommodation was a severe problem for undergraduates, took up the challenge to build a 5-storeyed hostel complex in Buller’s Lane, Colombo 7. The novelty of this project was that the funds were raised through the contributions of hundreds of donors. The hostel complex, declared open in 1996, now accommodates over 550 women undergraduates. The University of Colombo, as a mark of gratitude to the late Mrs. Jayawardena, renamed the hostel complex the Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Hostel Complex after her demise.