Department of Communication and Creative Arts at Present
At present, the Department of Communication and Creative Arts offers a honours degree in Communication and Creative Arts and a study stream in Communication and Creative Arts for undergraduates and a Diploma in Communication and Media Studies in the Sinhala, Tamil and English languages for external students. All the existing course units of the department have been prepared according to the Sri Lanka Qualification Framework (SLQF) guidelines. The department was given “A” grade in the faculty review conducted by the University Grants Commission in 2017. The review report highlighted the excellent coordination and functioning of the department.
“Excellent coordination and functioning of the Journalism Unit. There are very productive annual programmes that are conducted with ample opportunities for students to engage with. Regular publications of the Unit are highly commended”. (Programme Review Report- 2017, Faculty of Arts)
According to the statistics of Information and Documentation Centre (IDC) of University of Colombo, altogether 785 students have registered for the course units offered by the Journalism Unit in the academic year of 2020/21. At present, Journalism Unit caters to the third largest student population in the Faculty. It would also be the second largest student population when taking into the consideration the fact that students of the Journalism Unit are confined only to, first, second and third year batches.
The demand of the students to study Communication has been significantly increased in the last six years. In the 2014-2015 academic year, 302 students were registered for the Communication and Media Studies course units and it has increased to 785 within seven years. A record number of 358 first year students were registered in 2021 to follow courses offered by the Journalism Unit.
The Journalism Unit adopts modern and interactive teaching methods to develop theoretical knowledge and practical skills of the students. In the last few years, Journalism Unit organized a three-day residential programme on ‘Creativity and Art Criticism’ for third year students following the study stream in Communication and Creative Arts. The residential programme provided a platform for the students to develop their creativity and critical thinking skills with the inputs from academics and senior artistes.
Contribution of the Journalism Unit
The Department of Communication and Creative Arts has organized many cultural programmes for the students and staff of the University of Colombo. The cultural programmes such as සරදහස, අභිරති රූපා, චමත්කාර, රමය කාමනා and සරා සසෞමය were participated by large number of student, academic and non- academic population of the University of Colombo in the last few years. These programmes were conducted by veteran artistes in the country, and it also provided the opportunity for the students to interact with the renowned artistes in the country. The significance of department’s contribution to arts and cultural activities of the University of Colombo is that it has managed to create a creative space for the students from different faculties and institutions.
The academic staff of the Department of Communication and Creative Arts have contributed in the communication and media engagements of the various academic and extra curricular activities of the University of Colombo.