Emeritus Prof. Uma Coomaraswamy
Academic Affairs & Quality Assurance Consultant
Having obtained BSc degree with honours in Botany from University of Ceylon in 1965, her academic career started in 1965 at the University of Ceylon, Colombo as an Assistant Lecturer in Botany. In 1967 she proceeded to the University of London on an Open Commonwealth Scholarship for her postgraduate studies where she obtained her PhD in plant virology.
On her return to Sri Lanka in 1970 she was promoted to the post of Lecturer at the University of Colombo and thereafter became a Senior Lecturer in 1976. In 1978 she proceeded to University of California on a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research on mycoplasmas. For over 50 years she has been serving the Sri Lankan university system continuously as an academic, researcher, and administrator in various universities and capacities. After a period at the University of Colombo she became the Professor of Botany in the Eastern University of Sri Lanka in 1981, Senior Professor and Dean of the Science Faculty in 1987 and Consultant at the UGC from 1979-1980. In 1991 she joined the Open University of Sri Lanka as a Professor of Botany where she served as the Head of the Department till, she became the Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in March 1999.
In Jan 2001 on being appointed Vice Chancellor she reached the highest position in the university, a post she held for two full terms until her retirement in 2006. She has also authored many books, journal publications communications and presentations.
During the same period, she actively served in a number of national committees including the University Grants Commission, National Science Foundation, National Education Commission, Sri Lanka Association of Advancement of Science, Central Environmental Authority, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology as well as international bodies such as UNESCO, South Asia Foundation, SAARC, Commonwealth of Learning and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
From 2006 to 2009, She was the consultant on Quality Assurance to the ADB Distance Education Modernization Project of the Ministry of Higher Education during which period she spearheaded the preparation of the QA Toolkit for Distance Higher Education Institutions and Programmes published by the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO for use by commonwealth countries for quality assessment.
From 2013 to 2016 she served as a resource person in quality assurance to World Bank’s Higher Education for the 21st Century Project (WB-HETC) to develop best practices and quality assessment standards for Higher Education Institutions and Programmes in Sri Lanka for Quality Reviews of conventional universities and for Distance Higher Learning Institutions. She was a Commonwealth of Learning consultant for quality reviews of Universities in South Asia and for developing National policy on open and Distance Learning for Sri Lanka and Maldives. In March 2015, she was appointed as the Competent Authority in lieu of the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University and in August 2018 as the Competent Authority in lieu of Vice-Chancellor of South Eastern University.
Prof Coomaraswamy has been awarded the Zonta International Award for Women of Achievement-2005 in Science and Technology, the Silver Jubilee Award for the Outstanding contribution to the Open University of Sri Lanka and the gold medal for the meritorious and continuous service in the Sri Lankan university system, Institute of Biology Award for Outstanding and Dedicated contribution for the Advancement of biology and an Hon. D.Sc. by the Eastern University in 2018.
Emeritus Prof Uma Coomaraswamy also functioned as the Director of the UGC Centre for Gender Equity/Equality, Prevention of SGBV and Ragging during 2016 -2019. She also has served in many important Professional and Academic Boards and Associations including Board of Management of the National Science Foundation, the Postgraduate Institute of English, Sri Lanka Association for Advancement of Science, SAARC Consortium of Open and Distance Learning (ODL), SAARC Technical Committee on Human Resource Development, South Asia Foundation , Arthur C Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies and Institute for Fundamental Studies. She is a Fellow of the institute of Biology Sri Lanka and National Academy of Sciences Sri Lanka. Honorary Fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning Canada was instituted on her for her contribution to the Commonwealth in 2008. Prof Coomaraswamy was elected the 57th General President of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science in 1999.
