Was the Sabaragamuwa Faculty of Medicine Already Handed Over to Students Years Ago? What Exactly Happened Under the Current Government?

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When Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya handed over the new Faculty of Medicine complex at Sabaragamuwa University on July 4, 2026, the news set off a political tug-of-war online. One set of posts claimed the very same faculty had already been opened by Ranil Wickremesinghe back in 2019, and some mainstream reports, by calling the event the opening of a new faculty without the full context, only deepened the confusion. So, what was actually handed over in 2019, and what happened in 2026? We traced the full timeline. Here is what really happened.

Social Media Posts

Some mainstream news reports added to the confusion by describing the July 4 event as the opening of a new faculty without providing full context. That framing seeded misleading post suggesting an entirely new Faculty of Medicine had just been opened.

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On that basis, further posts circulated presenting the event as the opening of a new faculty, as shown below.

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In response, another set of posts began circulating claiming that the Sabaragamuwa Faculty of Medicine now handed over under Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government had already been handed over by Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2019.

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We looked into these claims to establish the actual background and determine whether they were accurate.

Explainer

To expand medical education in Sri Lanka, the 2018 Budget allocated Rs. 1,250 million (Rs. 1.25 billion) in direct funding for the medical faculties at Sabaragamuwa, Wayamba and Moratuwa Universities. The full budget report, presented to Parliament on November 9, 2017, is available here.

Cabinet Media Release (2018): Decision to Establish the Faculty

A Cabinet media release issued by the Cabinet Office of Sri Lanka on March 6, 2018, confirmed that the 2018 Budget proposal to establish the Sabaragamuwa Faculty of Medicine was being implemented, and that Rs. 1,250 million (Rs. 1.25 billion) had been allocated for the Sabaragamuwa, Wayamba and Moratuwa medical faculties.

It was also decided to begin academic work quickly by admitting a first batch of 75 medical students, and to rapidly prepare the lecture halls and accommodation needed to keep teaching going until the permanent buildings were ready. For the faculty’s immediate needs, a property at Batuhena on the Ratnapura to Colombo main road was selected, and the land and building complex then owned by the Auditor General’s Department was formally approved for transfer to serve as the faculty’s administrative and lecture facilities. Cabinet Office

Official Gazette Establishing the Faculty (2018)

The Sabaragamuwa University Faculty of Medicine was officially established under Section 27(1) of the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978, through a gazette notification signed by the Minister of Higher Education. UGC

Admission of the First Batch and Opening of the Faculty (January 2019)

On January 17, 2019, the academic work of the faculty was officially launched under then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Higher Education Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe. The first batch of 75 students (the 2017/2018 intake) was enrolled. As there was no permanent building yet, lectures were held on temporary premises attached to Ratnapura Teaching Hospital and using the university’s existing resources. Mainstream reports are available here and here.

Important: What happened in 2019 was the start of the faculty’s academic work, not the handover of a permanent building complex to students. At that point, the permanent buildings had not been built, and lectures ran under temporary facilities.

Official Loan Agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (September 2019)

In 2019, the Sri Lankan and Saudi governments signed an official financial agreement to build a modern physical complex for the faculty. The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) provided a concessional loan of 187.5 million Saudi riyals (close to US$50 million), with the Sri Lankan government to cover the balance. More details are available here and here.

Once the loan funds were secured, Cabinet approval was granted to award the design and construction contract for the faculty’s Para-Clinical Building to Maga Engineering Ltd., valued at Rs. 1,013.87 million (excluding VAT).

The Para-Clinical and Administrative Buildings: A Project Spanning Several Governments

The foundation stone for the Para-Clinical and Administrative Buildings was laid in October 2020, under then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government, at the Galkaduwa Watta, Nawanagaraya, Ratnapura premises.

Under the original plan, the first phase was to be finished within one and a half years. But the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the economic crisis that followed delayed construction significantly. More details are available here.

A notice on Sabaragamuwa University’s official website records that the Para-Clinical Building was opened on September 24, 2024. That notice is here. When we asked the university’s former Vice-Chancellor about this, he too confirmed that the Para-Clinical Building was handed over to students in 2024.

The construction of the newly opened faculty complex, which includes the student hostels, auditorium, library and Professorial Unit, began in January 2024. This was confirmed to us by the former Vice-Chancellor during our inquiry.

After the Current Government Came to Power…

On July 14, 2025, the Government of Sri Lanka and the SFD signed amended bilateral loan agreements restructuring the total debt on concessional terms, clearing the way for the project’s final phase to proceed without interruption. The agreement restructured a total of 517 million Saudi riyals (about US$137.9 million) on concessional terms, helping fast-track the final stage of several Saudi-funded projects, the Sabaragamuwa Medical Faculty among them. More details are available here and here.

What took place on July 4, 2026, was the official handover to students of the newly built Faculty of Medicine complex at Sabaragamuwa University, construction of which began in January 2024.

Since 2019, the faculty has admitted about five batches of medical students, with the total student population growing to around 750. With Prime Minister and Education Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and SFD Deputy CEO Eng. Faisal Al-Qahtani presiding, the event marked the official opening and handover of the newly built permanent Faculty of Medicine building complex. The complex, with hostels for up to 500 students, a 1,060-seat main auditorium and modern lecture halls, was formally handed over to students. More details are available here and here.

Opposition from the Medical Faculty Students’ Union

The Sabaragamuwa Medical Faculty Students’ Union issued a special media statement opposing Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya’s participation in the ceremony to hand over the new complex to students.

The union argued that the faculty, delayed for years by the actions and inaction of successive rulers, was the result of students’ hard-won struggles and sacrifices rather than any politician’s dedication.

In the statement, the union noted that the proposal for a medical faculty at Sabaragamuwa was first made in 2007, and that although admissions had been planned for 2010, the project was delayed for years through the negligence of successive rulers. Following sustained student activism, the faculty officially began academic work on January 5, 2019, but the union said, it was opened without the necessary basic facilities in place.

The union added that the first batch admitted in 2019 was due to begin clinical training in 2023, but that the absence of a Professorial Unit raised questions over the validity of the degrees, and that students had opposed attempts to introduce temporary fixes without Sri Lanka Medical Council approval.

The union voiced strong opposition to what it called attempts by various governments and political forces to claim credit for a faculty complex won through students’ dedication and sustained effort. The statement is here.

When Ranil Wickremesinghe launched the faculty in January 2019, students protested then too, saying it had been secured only after a major struggle and should not be politicized. That report is available here.

Former Vice-Chancellor Professor Sunil Shantha’s Explanation

To clarify the background further, we spoke with Professor Sunil Shantha, who served as Sabaragamuwa University’s Vice-Chancellor across two separate terms, from the establishment of the faculty until recently. He explained:

“The Faculty of Medicine started in 2019. At first, we were given a building complex at Batuhena belonging to the Auditor General’s Department, with three departments, to begin teaching. A medical student normally spends the first two years on pre-clinical work before moving to para-clinical. Construction of the Para-Clinical Building started around October 2020, on the 30th as I recall, with Rs. 96 million in Treasury funds after Cabinet approval. I was VC when that work began. Then COVID and the economic crisis delayed construction.

The roughly 70 students admitted in 2019 finished their two years, and because of the delay we had nowhere to place them. We then ran things out of a few rooms at the special training center in Ratnapura New Town, but as the batches grew that became difficult.

Pre-clinical has three departments and para-clinical seven, 15 departments in all. Because of the building shortage we leased a Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment building in Ratnapura New Town. By 2022 the economic crisis meant Maga, the contractor, was about to stop work because it had not been paid. I spoke to the then President, who was also Finance Minister, and explained that there were five batches of students and that the Para-Clinical Building had stalled over non-payment. The Ministry of Education was then released Rs. 300 million to pay the contractor, and that is how the work continued.

In 2024, Education Ministry Secretary Thilaka Jayasundara opened the Para-Clinical Building, the two three-to-four-storey blue-roofed blocks. We then vacated the leased building and moved in.

The faculty now has around 700 students, and two batches have graduated. The confusion here is that the media treated this as the opening of the Sabaragamuwa Faculty of Medicine. That is wrong. The faculty was already opened; a ceremonial opening happens only once.

What happened recently was the opening of buildings. Construction of this complex, the hostels, auditorium, library and Professorial Unit, began under the Saudi fund in January 2024. The Professorial Unit is not open yet; its work is due to finish this November.

The Saudi Fund loan agreement took a long time because of the Easter attacks and COVID, and the fund even considered stopping it. I wrote to Ranil Wickremesinghe between August and September 2019 explaining the need. The initial agreement was signed, the final one later in Colombo, and only then did it move. Cabinet approved the construction and it went to the contractor in January 2024.

Because of the country’s economic troubles, the work began without much publicity. No new construction was launched under the current government; it is the old agreement being carried out. I was the one who wrote the first proposal to establish this faculty. The media created a crisis by using the words ‘the Faculty of Medicine was opened’ instead of ‘buildings.’ We carried this through amid COVID and the economic crisis. Maga even brought workers from India to speed it up. This is a great blessing for the Sabaragamuwa region.”

Summary

The Sabaragamuwa Faculty of Medicine was funded through the 2018 Budget, officially established in 2018, and began academic work in January 2019 using temporary facilities. As the need for permanent infrastructure grew, a new building complex was planned; the foundation stone was laid in 2020 with completion expected within about one and a half years, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis caused long delays. Work on the permanent complex began in 2024 and was completed under the National People’s Power (NPP) government following a restructured loan agreement, with the finished complex handed over to students in 2026.

So, the 2019 event marked the start of academic work under temporary facilities, while the July 4, 2026, event marked the official opening and handover of the new permanent building complex, whose construction began in January 2024. Some reports described the 2026 event simply as the opening of the Faculty of Medicine, without clarifying that it was the new building complex being opened, and that missing context fed the misleading social media claims.

Ultimately, this is not a project that can be credited to any single government or politician. It is a long-term development effort that advanced in stages under successive governments, and one shaped by years of student advocacy and activism.