A Member Resolution to be Presented at the IESL AGM 2017 to Establish a Board of Academic Administration for the IESL CoE

Establishment of a Board of Academic Administration for the IESL College of Engineering

Introduction

The IESL College of Engineering (IESL CoE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the IESL established under the Companies Act No 7 of 2007. Therefore, under the provisions of the said Act and the Articles of Association (AoA) of this private limited liability company, its governance is the sole responsibility of the duly appointed Board of Directors of IESL CoE. According to the AoA the company, the Board consists of the Officers of the Council of the IESL.

For the success of the IESL CoE, which has the vision to be the "Premier Higher Educational Institution in Engineering" in Sri Lanka justifying its name brand association with IESL and with the mission to "Achieve Enduring Excellence in Education and Research in Engineering", it is essential to attract the best analytically minded and innovation oriented young people to its undergraduate enrollment. Also, in furtherance of these objectives, it is essential to attract well qualified and experienced academics committed to raise the standards learning, teaching and research of IESL CoE.

However, the performance of the management of the IESL CoE in furthering these noble objectives has been severely underwhelming since its inception. Thus, it is incumbent upon the Council of the IESL as the single shareholder of IESL CoE to expeditiously take corrective action.

A Historical Perspective on the Management of IESL CoE

While the IESL CoE has performed poorly from an institutional management perspective, the establishment of the IESL CoE was spearheaded by Eng Prof Ananda Jayawardane, a leading academic administrator in the country who has held multiple terms as the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, Head of the Department of Management of Technology, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa.

The seed for the plant that grew up to be the IESL CoE was a Council Paper authored by Prof Jayawardane as the Chairman of the IESL Education and Training Committee titled the "Establishment of College of Engineering - Policy Paper" and dated 06^th August 2008. His laudable efforts as the Chairman of the Education Committee and Vice President of IESL (2007-2009), President Elect of IESL (2009-2010), and President of IESL (2010-2011) guided the formation of IESL CoE with its incorporation as a private company on 13^th October 2011.

The table below depicts the Board of Directors of the IESL CoE since its inception to-date.

	Session 2010/2011	Session 2011/2012	Session 2012/2013	Session 2013/2014	Session 2014/2015	Session 2015/2016	Session 2016/2017	Session 2016/2017 (updated)
Ex-Officio (IESL Officers)
President	Eng Prof Ananda Jayawardane	Eng Brig Dr Ananda Ranasinghe	Eng Tilak De Silva	Eng Shavindranath Fernando	Eng Dr SB Wijekoon	Eng Wimalasena Gamage	Eng Jayavilal Meegoda	Eng Jayavilal Meegoda
Immediate Past President				Eng Tilak De Silva	Eng Shavindranath Fernando	Eng Dr SB Wijekoon	Eng Wimalasena Gamage	Eng Wimalasena Gamage
President Elect	Eng Brig Dr Ananda Ranasinghe	Eng Tilak De Silva	Eng Shavindranath Fernando	Eng Dr SB Wijekoon	Eng Wimalasena Gamage	Eng Jayavilal Meegoda	Eng Prof Niranjanie Ratnayake	Eng Prof Niranjanie Ratnayake
Executive Secretary	Eng Arundathi Wimalasuriya	Eng Arundathi Wimalasuriya	Eng Arundathi Wimalasuriya	Eng Arundathi Wimalasuriya	Eng Arundathi Wimalasuriya	Eng Dr Jagath Peiris	Eng Dr Jagath Peiris	Eng Neil Abeysekera
Nominated (IESL Officers)
Vice President #1	Eng Shavindranath Fernando	Eng Shavindranath Fernando				Eng Prof DAR Dolage	Eng Prof DAR Dolage	Eng Prof DAR Dolage
Vice President #2								Eng Prof SBS Abayakoon
Vice President #3								Eng Dr Kamal Laksiri
Hon Secretary
Hon Treasurer
Nominated (Non IESL Officers)
Nominee	Eng Ranjith Gunawardana	Eng Ranjith Gunawardana	Eng Ranjith Gunawardana	Eng Ranjith Gunawardana
Nominee	Eng Dr Mervin Gunasekara	Eng Dr Mervin Gunasekara	Eng Dr Mervin Gunasekara		Eng Dr Mervin Gunasekara
Nominee	Eng Prof Lakshman Ratnayake	Eng Prof Lakshman Ratnayake	Eng Prof Lakshman Ratnayake		Eng Prof Lakshman Ratnayake	Eng Prof Lakshman Ratnayake	Eng Prof Lakshman Ratnayake
Nominee				Eng Prof SBS Abayakoon
Nominee			Eng Arjuna Manamperi
Nominee				Eng Mangala Yapa	Eng Mangala Yapa	Eng Mangala Yapa

As can be surmised from the above table, the perilous state of the institutional management from an academic perspective is not due to lack of top flight academic administration expertise in the Board of Directors of IESL CoE. From the very inception of IESL CoE, every year the Board of Directors had as its members leading academic administrators including Eng Prof Ananda Jayawardane, Eng Prof SBS Abayakoon, Eng Dr SB Wijekoon, Eng Prof DAR Dolage, and Eng Prof Lakshman Ratnayake. Prof Ratnayake who was a member of the Board of Directors for 6 long years is a leading academic administrator in the country who has been the Head of the Department of Civil Engineering and the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Moratuwa, Council Member of the University of Colombo, Project Director of the Ministry of Higher Education on major national level projects, and Chairman of SLIIT.

Therefore, not withstanding all such expertise, the burdening of the Board of Directors of the IESL CoE with the task of institutional academic management may have led to this task not receiving its due focus and being handled solely by the CEO of the Company who as an administrative head of a private company is ill equipped to provide the required checks and balances in the important tasks of student recruitment, academic staff hiring and academic program development.