Abstract:
Gampaha Wickramarachchi University of Indigenous Medicine (GWUIM), established as Sri Lanka's
16th National University in 2021, includes the Faculty of Indigenous Health Sciences and Technology
(FIHST) among its four faculties. By December 2023, FIHST had 850 students enrolled across sixdegree
programs. In November 2021, the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) was formed to
ensure educational quality. Despite this, IQAC-FIHST found both academic and non-academic staff
lack awareness of quality assurance practices. To address this, a Quality Criteria Awareness Session
was held on December 23, 2023, covering topics such as program management, design, development,
and student support. The aims of this workshop were to make all academics and non-academics of the
faculty aware of quality criteria for the study program review, discuss examples of evidence needed to
collect from each degree program and identify the responsible persons/bodies/mechanism to collect all
documents. A self-administrated questionnaire was used for the data collection. The results showed, of
the 25 academics, 58% had inadequate and barely adequate knowledge of quality criteria before the
workshop, however, after the workshop 74 % of academics had good understanding about quality
criteria. Of the 11 non-academics, 63% had inadequate and barely adequate knowledge of quality
criteria before the workshop, however, after the workshop 62% of non-academics had good
understanding about quality criteria and 38% had adequate knowledge of quality criteria. Participants
expressed a desire for further workshops, prioritising topics such as student assessment, outcomebased
education, and computer skills. This feedback indicates a positive shift towards fostering a
quality-focused educational environment at FIHST, aligning with the Quality Assurance Framework of
Sri Lanka's University Grants Commission. Future workshops are recommended to address specific
needs, such as paper setting, academic collaboration, and curriculum revision, thereby enhancing the
overall quality and effectiveness of educational programs at GWUIM.
