Ceylon's path to setting up a university: Public Lecture Series 1918-1921

In the long arc of Ceylon's educational history, Sir Edward Denham's role stands singular and enduring. He was not merely a colonial bureaucrat, but a man who believed that the intellectual empowerment of a people was integral to their national dignity. His legacy, both as statistician and educator, remains etched in the foundations of modern Sri Lankan academia.

- AVISHKA MARIO SENEWIRATNE

By the close of the nineteenth century, Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known) boasted a growing number of sectarian and denominational schools, many of them established by missionary and private enterprise. Yet, despite these proliferating institutions of primary and secondary instruction, the island remained starkly devoid of any formal structure for tertiary education.

Ambitious young Ceylonese, having completed their matriculation, found themselves compelled to look abroadmost often to the United Kingdom-if they wished to pursue advanced studies. Only a privileged few obtained scholarships; for the majority, overseas education remained the preserve of wealth and influence.

This glaring deficiency in the educational apparatus became increasingly intolerable to the emerging intelligentsia of Ceylon, many of whom were simultaneously agitating for constitutional reforms and greater political autonomy under British rule. Among them, a number began to voice their frustration at the imperial government's failure to establish a university in Ceylon.

Anagarika Dharmapala, captured the sentiment with characteristic candour, declaring: "What we got in Ceylon was a bastard education" (Guruge, 1967, p. 71). Among the foremost voices in the campaign for a university was Dr. Marcus Fernando, a respected medical practitioner, a graduate of the University of London, and a man of broad political and entrepreneurial interests. Alongside leading figures such as Sir James Pieris and Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, he helped found the Ceylon University Association—a body dedicated to securing for the island an institution worthy of its aspirations. Their cause was not merely one of academic development, but of national dignity and intellectual self-reliance.