Page 162 - Open and Distance Education In Asia : Good Practice From AAOU Members

142 OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATON IN ASIA
Good Practices from AAOU Members

Another recent research conducted by the by the academic staff of the university with
academic staff of the university found that the facilitation of the Industrial Liaison
only about 40% of our students have a laptop Centre are planned to be commercialized
or desktop computers but nearly 95% of the through industry partners, with the university
students had smart phones. As the university retaining certain amount of royalty.
has increasingly conducting its administrative
and academic activities through the REFERENCES
University LMS, this research results enabled Ariadurai, SA., Manokanthan R. (2008).
the university to respond appropriately for Reasons for Student Discontinuation
the needs of the students. As a result, the in Engineering Degree Courses offered
university undertook various initiatives to at a Distance. Turkish Online Journal
provide device and internet access support to of Distance Education, 9 (3), pp. 74-86.
its students in the Regional and Study Centres https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/
of the OUSL. Academics are also increasingly article-file/156284
developing contents that are compatible for Bandarage, G., Peiris, PKD., Rajendra, JCN.,
mobile phones. Siriwardena, KDVF., Tantrigoda, TU.,
Wattavidanage, J., & Weerakoon, SR.
The University has also established a policy (2012). Effectiveness of revision in
on financing research and financial support an academic programme based on
to staff to present research findings at course completion rates: a case study.
international conferences as well as to Nugegoda: Open University of Sri Lanka
publish in indexed journals. It further http://repository.ou.ac.lk/bitstream/
encourages researchers to obtain external handle/94ousl/783/OU5168_000.
grants from local and international research pdf?sequence=1,
funding agencies to conduct research with Central Bank of Sri Lanka. (2021). Economics
an application and a national relevance. and Social Statistics of Sri Lanka - 2021.
The OUSL also provides research grants to Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Statistics
facilitate undergraduate research work. Department. Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Coomaraswamy, U., Jayatilleke, G., &
In the year 2016 the university established a Abeygunawardena, H. (2014). Manual
dedicated centre for liaising with the industry, for Quality Assurance of External Degree
known as the Industry Liaison Centre (ILC). Programmes and Extension Courses
Through this centre, the university was able Offered by Universities. Colombo:
to establish links with industry and undertake University Grants Commission. https://
industry-based projects in all areas of www.eugc.ac.lk/qac/downloads/QA_
expertise in the University. This centre has EDPs_Final.pdf
already facilitated many projects with the
industry leading to number of patents being
filed by academic staff of the university. In the
near future, some of the products developed

The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL)