Vision:
To become a centre of excellence for Political Science research and teaching in Sri Lanka
Mission:
- Facilitating for the students of the Department a unique environment in which to gain exposure to various sub-strands of Political Science as well as multidisciplinary perspectives, covering an expansive range of approaches, and focusing on a variety of empirical contexts
- Working towards a free and open research culture conducive for critical thinking, research, and practice
- Facilitating advanced knowledge production through diverse, high quality research, teaching, and public outreach initiatives
- Orienting students to a social mission defined by a sense of social responsibility and familiarity with democratic, dialogic practices
Graduate Profile:
Graduates of the Department of Political Science will have strong command of all three thrust areas of Political Science, namely its normative, scientific, and advocacy functions. They will also be in possession of a range of transferable skills and competencies that would render them adaptable in many professional environments including, but not limited to the public sector, non-profit organisations, and the corporate sector. They will have strong independent initiative, but also be flexible team players capable of achieving goals individually and collectively.
Graduate Attributes
- Excellent command of the subject matter
- Strong independent initiative
- Flexible team player
- Transferable skills and competencies
- Research capacity for innovation and development
- Critical reasoning
- Values and ethics that would translate well in many professions
- Multicultural competence
- Confidence
- Global citizens with a cosmopolitan outlook
- Ethical human being capable of aesthetic appreciation and empathetic understanding
- Lifelong learner
Programme Learning Outcomes
- Stemming from their exposure to the analysis of political institutions, processes, and actors, graduates will have the skills to both deploy concepts and theories to understand complex socio-political contexts, as well as critically engage in them with a view to progressive change
- Graduates will possess skills in public administration, management, and public policy management, that will not only render them competent managers and administrators, but also actors who inform policy calculations for socially desirable outcomes
- Upon completion of the degree programme, graduates will acquire effective conflict resolution skills that would prove useful in myriad situations ranging from workplace relations to the home sphere, and multicultural settings to international organisational contexts
- Graduates will be capable of developing systematic, coherent, and independent knowledge on politics and society, while contributing to filling gaps in the existing body of knowledge in politics and government
- Not only will graduates possess the capacity to apply the theoretical tools they have been introduced to in order to critically understand political dynamics and development of society, they will also have developed the training to theorise their socio-political contexts from the ground up
- Based on their undergraduate training, graduates will have a strong commitment to upholding the spirit of justice and democracy, multiculturalism, and pluralism in their everyday capacities as professionals, citizens, and general members of society, motivated to intervene in social and political questions
The alignment of the Programme Learning Outcomes with the level descriptors of the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework and graduate attributes may be viewed here.
The charter of the Department of Political Science may be viewed here.
