Nearly 100,000 students qualify each year to enter the Universities in Sri Lanka. Out of this number a little over 13,000 (ie. around 13 %) gain admission to follow degree programmes. Only a small number among the left outs manage to continue studies at the tertiary level while majority of them are left with no future prospects. Even, the opportunity available to do the higher studies externally is negligible. The University of Jaffna offering to contribute to the development of higher studies in its own way has initiated steps towards the provision of opportunities for higher studies at least to a small section, in the Tamil medium.
Though the University of Jaffna has a history of experience in conducting an External degree programme in this field, for nearly fifteen years the concept of distance learning has not been tried on to date. The faculty of Management Studies and Commerce is interested to begin a distance programme in Business Studies. The traditional mode of the distance learning where printed learning materials in the form of modules are provided to the prospective learners and conducting an external examination does not seem very fitting to modern needs, trends and technical advances.
The medium of instruction shall be Tamil
The duration of the programme is three academic years, with two semesters per academic year. Each semester will have duration of a minimum of 20 weeks. The programme will be conducted mainly on online basis. This will be supplemented with face to face contact, on at least three occasions per semester per course. In addition to the above, it is planned for additional reading materials to be made available in website. For each course there will be in course assessment and an end semester written examination. The results will be released semester wise.
The Programme is structured in a flexible manner so as to suit the conveniences and requirements of the students.
