This past spring, a Sri Lankan delegation of academic officials consisting of two vice chancellors and a former dean from three universities and an executive director of agriculture who also represents the University Grants Commission visited Michigan State University in hopes of furthering higher education partnerships and creating a path toward rapid development in Sri Lanka.

After more than three decades of fighting between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, Sri Lanka emerged from civil war in May 2009. The country is now focused on reconstruction, rehabilitation, and reconciliation. Regaining knowledge and furthering its educational systems is a big part of the picture, the delegates said. "We are in a revival process after 30 years of war," said Buddhi Marambe, former dean of faculty of agriculture and the director of the Agriculture Education Unit of the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. "We need a model, we need expertise and guidance to modify the system to our needs." The South Asia Partnership Group of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Asian Studies Center hosted the high-level delegation with representatives from University of Colombo, University of Jaffna and the University of Peradeniya.

Sri Lanka is one of three priority countries for MSU's South Asia Partnership, which also includes India and Nepal. Last year, CANR and International Studies and Programs signed a formal agreement to establish academic and research collaborations with the University of Peradeniya and the University of Colombo and are looking forward to expanding this collaboration to work with universities that were isolated in the recent past due to civil war.

The partnership will place MSU in a lead role at the Fifth Asian Biotechnology Development Conference, which will be held for the first time in Sri Lanka this coming December. "With a large number of Sri Lankan students enrolled at MSU and a strong alumni base connected with these partner institutions, the partnership possesses the assets for a long term and mutually beneficial partnership," said Karim Maredia, senior associate to the Dean of CANR and leader of the South Asia Partnership.

"We’ve come as a team to rebuild areas that were neglected," Marambe said. "If we continue to think positively and work together we can help focus the needed attention on post-conflict institutional building in Sri Lanka."