The Western Campus of the University of Colombo was established by a notification of the Sri Lanka government Gazette (Extraordinary ) No 928/1 dated 20th June 1996. Its name was subsequently amended as Sri Palee Campus of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka with effect from 11.09.1998 by an order made by the Hon. Minister of Education and Higher Education under 27(1) of the Universities Act No-16 of 1978.

 

It is located in the Kalutara district at Wewala, Horana on the lands and buildings donated to the University of Sri Lanka in 1976 by the board of the Sri Palee Trust set up by the late Mr. Wilmot A. Perera, a veteran politician and well-known philanthropist.

 

It has 2 Faculties i.e the Faculty of Performing Arts and the Faculty of Mass Media. Under the Faculty of Performing Arts there is only one department of study which is the department of Performing Arts in which Music, Dancing, Drama and Theatre, Screen Studies and Art and Design are taught as main subjects. Under the faculty of Mass Media three departments were originally gazetted i.e. the Department of Mass Media, the Department of Languages and the Department of Information Technology. However at present only the department of Mass Media is fully functional and the other two are functioning as the Language Unit and Information Technology Unit.

 

The students of Sri Palee Campus are admitted by the UGC based on the marks obtained by students at the aptitude test conducted by the campus and their z-score obtained at the Advanced Level examination. Nearly 35 students for each faculty have been admitted each year from 1998 when the campus started its academic programmes.