18th Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration

By Dr. Sashi Tharoor

The 18th Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration will be delivered at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, October 31, at the BMICH by Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, India, bestselling author of 24 books, former Under Secretary – General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India.

His topic will be “Is expansion of BRICS the beginning of a new world order?”

The Annual Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration, being a premier annual event of the University of Colombo is hosted for the 18th consecutive year by the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo, in memory of its illustrious Past President the late Mrs. Sujata Jayawardena who rendered immense service to the University of Colombo.

Speaking on the Oration, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo Senior Professor H.D. Karunaratne said We look forward to the 18th Sujata Jayawardena Memorial Oration to be delivered by the World Renowned Dr. Sashi Tharoor on a subject which would undoubtedly be a topic of great interest during these evolving times.

University of Colombo Alumni President J.M.S. Bandara said that the Association was honoured to have Dr. Sashi Tharoor as the Orator to speak on a topic which is most pertinent to the Region and Sri Lanka given its special geographical setting.

Past Orators have been Prof. Chandra Wickramasinghe, Jayantha Dhanapala, Robert O. Blake Jr., Judge C.G. Weeramantry, Vidyajothi Prof. Arjuna Aluwihare, Lalith Weeratunga, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, Prof. Sudarshan Seneviratne, Emeritus Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Chinese Ambassador H.E. Yi Xianliang, Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Tony Weerasinghe, Prof. Neelika Malavige and Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy.

This Oration is organised with the support of the Alumni Corporate Partners LOLC Group and Akbar Brothers Group, and Event Sponsors Multiform Chemicals (Pvt.) Ltd and the Marlbo Trading Company.

All those interested in participating at this year’s Oration are requested to connect with the Alumni Association by E-mailing sjoration2023@gmail.com no later than 20th October 2023.

Only a limited number of invitations are available, and therefore registrations will be on a first come first served basis. If it is an Alumni requesting Invitations, do indicate the same in your request. All Alumni of the University of Colombo are Associate Members of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo.