Active Citizens of University of Moratuwa
Active Citizens is a global initiative by the British Council. University of Moratuwa reinvented the concept to suit its regular programmes.
Active Citizens is a Concept promoted by the British Council. It is a social leadership training programme that is focused on promoting intercultural dialogue and community-led social development. Identifying the effective social skills development needs of technologically and professionally oriented undergraduates of University of Moratuwa, we reinvented the programme to suite the university education with blessings and support from the British Council.
The programme is designed to bring together people with different beliefs and perspectives to learn from and share with each other. We train our students in the skills and knowledge needed to affect social change in communities. We see this as very important as almost all of them are expected to become professionals who will be responsible in many ways in shaping the society’s future.
Students who complete this programme will be linked with the Active Citizens around the world through the British Council’s programme.
We have developed a university wide curriculum for this programme and the modules are offered at all faculties. It is hearting to find that other state universities in Sri Lanka also has adopted our initiative.
We trust that Active Citizens of University of Moratuwa will bring about a significant change among our students.
Active Citizen Trainers were trained by British Council through their Facilitator Training Programme. Several of our staff members have gone through this programme and they now serve as ACMORA Facilitators.
Prof. Kanchana Perera |
Dr. Udeni Nawagamuwa |
Ms. Vishaka Nanayakkara |
Mr. Suranga Jayasena |
Ms. Thanuja Sandanayaka |
Dr. Chandanie Hendiwattage |
Ms. Piyumi Dissanayake |
Mr. Udara Abeydeera |
Ms. Navodana Rodrigo |
Polythene and plastics have been accountable for uncontrollable hazards occurred in the present world. Scientists have revealed that polythene has lifetime of over hundred years, it reveals that this hazards are contaminating unborn generations due our present actions. The main irritating issue we confront today is global warming, one reason due to the excessive usage of the polythene and plastic matters. These products have affected the whole biodiversity; when it is buried in soil which takes long duration to digest and mainly it work as a barrier against natural water springs. Mainly in international content plastic is final dump to …
ACMORA, The Active Citizens Programme at University of Moratuwa by now has trained hundreds of students through its training course module (Responsible Citizenship / Facilitation) delivered in three faculties. Many of them have become real Active Citizens by implementing social projects that brought positive changes to many lives. This invitation is for all who are yet to bring in real life projects. We are open to your ideas. Talk to your facilitator.
Happy hearts deep minds project done by our immediate seniors in last year. ‘Improve the English knowledge and reading ability of primary grade students by establishing a new library or the school’ was the main object of that project. Mampe Primary School in Piliyandala was the school were selected by them. They were planned to find major books written in English to donate to the library. Also they had more objectives than establishing a new library. Those are as follows;
ACMORA has many memories to share in its facebook page. Here we present some of the photographs from our activities.
Active Citizen Programme in University of Moratuwa is offered through two modules. While there are slight differences in delivery and assessment, necessitated by needs of each faculty, the module contents remain same for faculties across the university.
First Module is focused on development of social skills among students through workshops delivered by trained faculty with support of external facilitators where necessary and/or beneficial. This module is named Responsible Citizenship in Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of IT, while the same is named Facilitation in Faculty of Architecture.
Second module is a Social Action Project (SAP) to be executed by the students under supervision of trained faculty. This module is name Active Citizens across all faculties.
FIRST MODULE
Module Title: Responsible Citizenship / Facilitation
Credits: 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this module the student should be able to;
– explain how social actions can have a impact on the lives of people
– explain the need to acknowledge, respect and engage communities and cultures for long term benefit of all
– identify the impact of their actions to sustainable development
– illustrate interdependency and be socially responsible
OUTLINE SYLLABUS
Me: Identity and culture
– Self-confidence
– Self-awareness
– Formation, expressions and changes of identities and cultures
– Differences in perspectives
Me and You: Intercultural Dialogue
– Dialogue: how and when it can be used
– Dialogue to support learn and share
We: Local and global commitments
– Community and connections between local and global community
– Key stakeholders in the community
– Social development issue to address in the community
– Motivation to act toward sustainable development
Planning social action
Skills in project planning and management
SECOND MODULE
Module Title: Active Citizens
Credits: 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this module, the student should be able to;
– identify social actions that can have a significant impact on the lives of people
– facilitate community engagement for long term benefit of all
– demonstrate the impact of their actions to the sustainable development
– evaluate the impact of their social action projects
OUTLINE SYLLABUS
Identification of social actions
– Problem identification, assessment of need, formulation of expected outcomes.
Planning of social action
– Planning a real life social action project
Delivery of social action
– Adaption of
– – Me: Identity and culture
– – Me and You: Intercultural Dialogue
– – We: Local and global commitments
– Management of social action project
Self-evaluation and reporting of social action
Location Map
Active Citizens Programmes at University of Moratuwa
Faculty of Architecture
Mr. Suranga Jayasena
Active Citizens Facilitator / Senior Lecturer
suranga@uom.lk
0112 650301 Ext 7218
Faculty of Engineering
Prof. Udeni Nawagamuwa
Active Citizens Facilitator / Professor
vishaka@cse.mrt.ac.lk
0112 650301 Ext 2017
Faculty of Information Technology
Dr. Thanuja Sandanayake
Active Citizens Facilitator / Senior Lecturer
thanujas@uom.lk
0112 650301 Ext 8304
