These reports claimed that Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, in her capacity as the Minister of Education, issued a gazette notification regarding these changes.

Due to the social discourse sparked by these claims, FactSeeker decided to verify the accuracy of the information.

We investigated whether the alleged gazette notifications were issued as reported. It was found that two special gazette notifications (No. 2412/35 and No. 2412/36) were issued on November 29, 2024, by Dr. Harini Amarasuriya as the Minister of Education.

Gazette notification No. 928/16, issued on June 20, 1996, established the Sri Palee Campus under the University of Colombo. It explicitly outlined its faculties and departments under Section 22 of the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978. The recent gazette No. 2412/35 revised the earlier regulations by replacing Clauses 1 and 2 of the original schedules and introducing an updated schedule.

According to the updated schedule, under the establishment of the Faculty of Mass Media, four other academic departments such as Mass Media, Performing Arts, Languages, and Computer Studies was formalized under the Sri Palee Campus framework. However, the Sri Palee Campus has not been dissolved or rebranded. Instead, the establishment of the Faculty of Mass Media is a continuation of its proposed structure from the year 1996, with clear departmental categorizations.

FactSeeker consulted Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa, Rector of the Sri Palee Campus, for clarification. He confirmed, as shown in the posts below, that a new gazette was issued to integrate a Faculty of Mass Media into the existing campus structure.

Updates on Moratuwa University

The Faculty of Medicine and its associated departments at the University of Moratuwa were outlined in Gazette No. 1469/38 on November 3, 2006, and later revised under Gazette No. 2163/22 on February 19, 2020, which initiated the establishment of medical faculties and related departments.
The recent gazette No. 2412/36 updated these provisions, renaming the Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine to the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine. Importantly, there was no mention of abolishing the Faculty of Medicine in the gazette.

FactSeeker contacted the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Moratuwa, which confirmed that the recent gazette only reflected a departmental name change, not the dissolution of the faculty.

FactSeeker verified that the media reports claiming the Sri Palee Campus was designated solely as the Faculty of Mass Media and the “University of Moratuwa’s Faculty of Medicine was abolished” are misleading. The changes documented in the gazette notifications pertain only to restructuring and renaming within the existing frameworks, without any indication of abolishment or significant shifts.