The Department of Economics of the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka was established as a separate department in 2020. Before the department was established, Bachelor of Arts Honors in Economics and students who take Economics as one of the three subjects in a General Arts Degree were offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (since 1996). Approximately 100 students undertake Economics as a subject under General Arts Degree program while around 30 students are enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts Honors in Economics each year. At present department has 9 permanent academic staff, of them 5 holds Ph.D. level qualifications. During a short time, the department has developed its academic, research, physical, and infrastructural facilities to well match with the world standards.
The Department has already designed two Postgraduate Degree Programs in Economics and Development Studies. With highly qualified academic staff, the department also aims to contribute to the national development of the country by generating new knowledge and contributing to public policy discussions in Sri Lanka.
Recently, the Department revised the curriculum of its degree programs – BA Degree Program and BA (Hons) Degree Program in Economics – to meet society’s demand for a 21st-century workforce. The Department recently recognized the value of the revision of its curriculum which is highly significant to better respond to the social, economic, environmental, and political transitions, where the societal needs are considered as the foremost element of consideration in this process. Thus, enrichment of the curriculums was done by taking into account the needs of the local job market, SLQF guidelines, International benchmarking, the model of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) and Students Centered Learning (SCL), and with the consultation of prominent academics in the field of economics.