Historical Background of Faculty of Arts

The history of the Faculty of Arts dates back to the early beginnings of university education in Sri Lanka. The predecessor to the Faculty of Arts in Peradeniya University was established in Colombo, as part of then University of Ceylon, as two faculties called the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Oriental Studies. These two faculties were moved to Peradeniya in 1952, and were amalgamated in 1972 to form the Faculty of Arts.

The twenty years from 1952 to 1972 saw the expansion of the Faculties of Arts and Oriental Studies. The original seven departments of study of the two faculties were Classics, Economics, English, Geography, History, Oriental Languages, and Philosophy. The Department of Oriental Languages was divided in 1943 into the four separate departments of Sinhalese, Tamil, Pali and Sanskrit.

This was followed by the addition of several other academic disciplines to the faculty: Law and Arabic in 1945; Sociology, Education and Modern Languages in 1949 (French and German had been taught for many years as subsidiary subjects); Archaeology in 1959; and Buddhist Philosophy in 1964. The most recent additions to the faculty are the departments of Fine Arts and Management Studies, and Law established respectively in 2001, 2002 and 2009.

A sub-department of English for the teaching of English as a second language was set up after the swabasha (i.e., non-English medium) students entered the university. In addition, French is also available as a subject to students following the General Degree Programme.

The Organization of the Faculty

In terms of both the number of students and staff, the Faculty of Arts is the largest of the seven faculties of the University of Peradeniya. At present there are sixteen departments of study and a teaching unit called the English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) in the faculty. The ELTU, which is separate from the Department of English, is responsible for teaching English to students doing their degrees in the Sinhala and Tamil media. Student enrolment in the Faculty of Arts is around 3000 at present.

Office of the Dean

The Dean's Office, located in the Main Arts Building, is the administrative center of the faculty. The Dean of the Faculty is the academic and administrative head of the faculty. He is assisted by a Senior Assistant Registrar and a team of technical, clerical, and other service staff, who handle the day to day work of the faculty.

Departments of Study

Academic activities of the faculty are organized under Departments of Study and a Teaching Unit. The Departments of Study and the Teaching Unit are managed by Heads, who are appointed by the Vice-Chancellor. The Head of the Department/Unit is responsible for its day to day administration. The Departments of Study/Unit have their own offices, a clerk/stenographer, and an office assistant as support staff. The following are the seventeen Departments of Study/Unit at present.

Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilization
Department of Archeology
Department of Classical Languages
Department of Economics and Statistics
Department of Education
Department of English
Department of Fine Arts
Department of Geography
Department of History
Department of Law
Department of Management Studies
Department of Pali & Buddhist Studies
Department of Philosophy
Department of Political Science
Department of Sinhalese
Department of Sociology
Department of Tamil
English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU)

The Faculty Board

The Faculty Board consists of all permanent teachers of the faculty above the grade of Lecturer and representatives of students and teaching support staff of the faculty, and is the faculty’s highest policy making authority. Meetings of the Faculty Board, chaired by the Dean, are held once a month. Decisions relating to academic matters are taken by the Faculty Board subject to ratification by the Senate and Council of the university. In addition to the general body, the Faculty Board also consists of three permanent committees that deal with matters relating to academic administration, higher degrees, and research. The faculty also appoints sub-committees when necessary, whose functions are either long term or task specific.

Meetings of the Heads of Departments, the Research Committee and the Higher Degrees Committee are held regularly, normally once a month. The deliberations of these meetings are reported to the Faculty Board for ratification.

Students

The Faculty of Arts annually admits about 600 students on “all-island merit,” and 10% of that number as “special intake.” The “special intake” is intended to provide students to disciplines that do not get sufficient students under the normal intake. In addition, a few physically disabled students are given admission to the faculty each year. These students are selected by the University Grants Commission with the approval of the faculty.

Academic Staff

The total number of approved cadre positions of the faculty is 202, and at present there are 180 teachers attached to the 17 Departments of Study, and 13, to the English Language Teaching Unit.

The majority of the teachers of the faculty have overseas teaching and research experience gained through either graduate studies or post-doctoral work. Since opportunities for overseas training for junior staff in the faculty are now limited, the majority of the recent recruits to the academic staff have completed their graduate work locally. The English Language Teaching Unit has 13 teaching support staff.

Administrative and Support Service Personnel

There are 70 members of administrative and service support staff attached to the faculty. These include the Senior Assistant Registrar, who is responsible for the general administration of the faculty under the direction of the Dean. Of the service support staff, about 25 work in the Office of the Dean or other branches of the Central Faculty Administration, while the rest are attached to different Departments of Study.

From http://www.pdn.ac.lk/arts/ginfo.html