About

The Christian Culture Diploma was first begun in 1976 in the Vidyalankara Mandapaya which was the former name of the present day University of Kelaniya. It was started as a course affiliated to the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies and the position of the Department Head was held by Prof. W.S.Karunaratne.

At the very beginning, three female students and a Catholic Priest applied for this course for the academic year which started from May 1976. When the courses lacked the required number of students, a second intake was made in which there were six Buddhist Priests and another three female students for the Christian Culture Course. Accordingly the first batch of the BA Special Degree in Christian Culture was commenced in 1977 and the students who obtained the best results in at the first year examination were selected for this Special Degree.

The degree programmes such as Arabic and Islamic Culture and Tamil and Hindu Culture were moved to the University of Peradeniya in the academic year 1980/ 81. As a result of that some members of the staff and the undergraduates of the Department of Western Classics was joined the University of Peradeniya. Subsequently the course was offered by a new department called "Classical Studies" merged with the Christian Culture Course of which the Department Head position was chaired by Dr. Anthony Fernando. Since then, the Head of the Department position was held by the lecturers based on seniority, representing both the subjects. The former Heads are;

• Professor Antony Fernando
• Reverend Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe
• Professor Kamani Jayasekera
• Professor Shirley Lal Wijesinghe
• Senior Lecturer Mrs. Isha Gamlath