page_title: Open University of Sri Lanka
section_title: Establishment & History
hierarchical_section_title: Open University of Sri Lanka / Establishment & History
caption_attribution_description: English: Dr.Nissanka Wijeyeratne
context_page_description: "The Open University of Sri Lanka" is a national university in Sri Lanka. It is unique within the Sri Lankan national university system for being the only university to offer programs of study leading to Certificate, Diploma, Degrees and Postgraduate degrees up to PhD level through the Open and Distance Mode of Learning. The degrees awarded by the university are treated as equivalent to degrees awarded by any other Sri Lankan University under the preview of the University Grants Commission.
  The OUSL Main Campus is located in Colombo in Nawala, Nugegoda. There are 8 regional centers in addition to main campus at Nawala. They are;
  Kandy Regional Center – Polgolla, Kandy
  Matara Regional Center – Nupe, Matara
  Jaffna Regional Center – Kokuvil, Jaffna
  Anuradhapura Regional Center – Jayanthi Mawatha, Anuradhapura
  Batticaloa Regional Center – 23, New Road, Batticaloa
  Badulla Regional Center – No 18/1, Bandaranayake Mw, Badulla
  Kurunegala Regional Center – Negombo Road, Malkaduwawa, Kurunegala
  Ratnapura Regional Center – Hidellana, Ratnapura
  The Open University of Sri Lanka is currently ranked as No.9 among Sri Lankan Universities and No. 6353 among international Universities.
context_section_description: The concept of establishing the Open University of Sri Lanka was by Dr. Nissanka Wijeyeratne the Cabinet Minister of Education & Higher Education at the time.
  The University was set up by the Government of Sri Lanka under the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978, for the purpose of providing higher educational opportunities to working adults – providing them the road to success, surpassing age, vocation, gender, race, ethnicity and religion. The OUSL has the same legal and academic status as any other national university in Sri Lanka.
  The university policy on admission would enable a person to register at the lowest 'Level' with mere basic literacy and then climb up to postgraduate level.
  The concept of Distance Education at the OUSL functions through a dynamic network of regional and study centres, with knowledge imparted through multiple media. Therefore, students with work commitments are able to pursue studies since they interact with especially designed self-instructional materials where the materials function as a "Tutor in Print". This method provides the distance learner with the best possible learning opportunity to enable a balancing of personal, work related and academic obligations.
caption: The concept of establishing the Open University of Sri Lanka was by Dr. Nissanka Wijeyeratne
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