Moratuwa Uni. ranked Number 1 in the world

5-Oct-2009
By Sandun A. Jayasekera

The University Moratuwa has done it again. It has emerged as the best university in ‘Software Engineering’ in the world in a highly competitive global competition, held annually. “Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) which also goes by the name Google Summer of Code is a competition that tests the creativity, talent, abilities and performance of students.

“This annual competition commenced in 2005. In the last four years the University of Moratuwa has been ranked the No.1 University among 1193 Universities worldwide and have won over twice the number of awards than second placed University of Toronto, Canada,” Vice Chancellor of the Moratuwa University Prof. Malik Ranasighe said. We were placed first in the World in 2007 and 2008 as well, he said.

This “Ranking of Universities” was done by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2008 in UK. Despite the ranking system being biased towards UK Universities, it argues that the main reason for UK Universities to slip in their own ranking system is the lack of investment. It points out that USA’s Harvard University’s annual endowment fund (funds available for academic and development activities) is greater than the total annual public funding for all universities in England.

“The Times” rankings are based on surveys of academics and graduate employers about which they consider to be the best Universities in their fields, the ratio of students to academics, the proportion of overseas students and staff at each University, the number of times research by each university’s academics is quoted in other journals etc.

None of the criteria used for “The Times” ranking considers criteria like “enhancing abilities, performance and creativity of undergraduates or postgraduate students”. That is what Universities in Sri Lanka, like the University of Moratuwa are focusing on, producing high quality world class graduates using the very limited facilities available, Prof. Ranasinghe emphasized.