SLIIT partners with leading Australian University La Trobe to offer local students better exposure

By Shannon Jayawardena

The Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) recently partnered with one of Australia’s leading universities, La Trobe, to offer local students better exposure academically and culturally.

La Trobe University Vice Chancellor and President Prof. John Dewar said: “La Trobe University celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. We were founded in the late 1960s as the third university in the Australian State of Victoria. During the time, the university has become globally recognised for its research excellence in a number of areas and I’m delighted that last year, the university reached its highest-ever ranking on the three major Global Rankings of Universities.”

On the academic rank, La Trobe is ranked at 301 in the world, which means that the university is ranked within the top 1.4% of universities globally. The multi campus university in Victoria has jumped over 200 places in the last year’s Academic Ranking of World Universities and offers high quality degrees that equip students to understand and engage with the global issues that are taking place today. 

“We are very proud of the long standing, deep relationships that La Trobe had developed over the time with South East Asian countries including Sri Lanka and I’m very pleased to say that we now welcome over 300 Sri Lankan students who are currently studying at the university. The numbers seem to be increasing every year which is pretty wonderful in terms of the cultural life of the campus.”

He emphasised on the fact that SLIIT was a very prestigious institution with which they have had a steadfast relationship of over five years. The agreement will further strengthen and extend the relationship and will provide local students the opportunity of gaining an international qualification, part of which they will be able to study for at home instead of having to move to Australia for the full degree. 

Likewise, La Trobe also signed an agreement with the American National College (ANC), allowing students perusing the foundation program to complete a degree at La Trobe. Dewar stated: “We have a very wide diversity of partners and relationships here. We have had a number of students come from Australia to study in Sri Lanka for short periods of time, we’ve had students on a community planning degree, we’ve had some of our health students come here for particular reasons and that’s greatly enriched their education by being exposed to the local culture and the society.”

La Trobe will also be offering scholarships ranging from 15-25% of the total tuition fee for both undergraduate and postgraduate international students commencing mid-2018. These scholarships will be merit based and will be offered to the students for selected courses based on their prior academic performances. They will be offered on a first come, first served basis. 

Pix by Kithsiri De Mel