Horizon Campus Knowledge City Malabe to be positioned as a leading education provider in the South Asian Region
Upul Daranagama, Chairman of Horizon Campus
Horizon Campus is a pioneering higher education provider, with degree-awarding status to provide its own degrees, having strong affiliations and longstanding partnerships with top foreign universities such as the University of London (UK), Birmingham City University (UK), Arkansas State University (US), Nilai University (Malaysia) and Asia e University (Malaysia).
They recently stepped into a new chapter of offering world-class education to students, with the launch of a next-generation multi-story, multi-space university facility at the “Knowledge City Malabe’(KCM) themed as “ a new city, a new life”. Upul Daranagama, Chairman of Horizon Campus gave an insight into their plans of positioning the newly launched campus as a leading educational provider in the South Asian region.
Mr.Daranagama stated “ One of the main objectives of the newly launched campus is to retain the country’s talent and prevent brain drain. By opening a purpose-built campus which is on par with international standards, we want to attract our students to study and remain within the country. And this will be specially beneficial now with the pandemic in force with continuous lockdowns and travel restrictions across the world. Our key aim is to give our students the opportunity to enjoy the same benefits as they would at an International University and to continue their studies to gain the requisite qualifications required for their career aspirations without any delays or interruptions “
Daranagama further explained that the new campus has added new facilities to it’s current portfolio– Education, IT, International Programmes, Management, Science, Law and Technology. They recently opened its Engineering faculty, offering three graduate degrees covering Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, and has plans of adding a Nursing faculty going forward.
Being a firm believer in the value of research, Horizon will also utilize their new facilities to drive an objective of publishing a minimum of two research papers in international journals annually – a feat that will further improve the university’s overall ranking. Listed as an approved university in the World Bank funded Sri Lankan Government operation Accelerating Higher Education Expansion and Development (AHEAD) programme, Horizon Campus is dedicated to contribute to research, mainly in the science stream.
“In addition to publishing research papers, we will be encouraging students to get involved with entrepreneurial research,” says Daranagama, adding that the university is keen to nurture and support entrepreneurship ventures via the campus’ inhouse Business Incubator which supports students with funding and mentorship.
Lauded for its high graduate employability, stemming from strict adherence to internal quality assurance and selective and guaranteed internship training, Horizon will further strengthen these benefits with the launch of the new campus, thereby gaining further credibility and confidence of employers.” We are in the process of having discussions with some of the leading and most innovative companies in the country and guarantee work placement after completion of their degree,” explains Daranagama, mentioning that the university currently works in tandem with industry players such as Virtusa, Daraz, Orel Corporation, Ninewells Hospital and HCL Technologies to provide internships for students to name a few. With the new facility being on par with global standards, and its vision of being a leading educational provider in the South Asian region, Horizon will focus on attracting regional students to study in Sri Lanka, including those from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and the Maldives, and ex-pat students living in the Middle East. “During the pandemic, we have successfully onboarded 115 ex-pat students to Horizon, and once things return to post-pandemic conditions, we will be opening our doors to foreign students,” avers Daranagama stating that Horizon Campus looks forward to contributing towards achieving Sri Lanka‘s vision of being a leading education hub in Asia.