| |
THE
DEGREE
The
students entering the Faculty of Science of the University
of Colombo may read for a Degree in the Biological
Sciences or the Physical Sciences.
The Faculty offers two B.Sc. degree programs each
for the Biological and Physical Sciences, namely the
general degree program of 3 years
duration, and the special degree program
of 4 years duration.
STRUCTURE
The
degree will consist of Subject Course
Units and Enhancement Course Units.
Each course unit will have a Credit Rating.
The
degree will be determined by the completion
of a prescribed number of credits from the subject
course units and enhancement course units offered
and supplicated by the student.
NAME
OF THE DEGREE
The
3-year degree will be named the Bachelor
of Science (B.Sc.) Degree.
The
4-year degree will be named according
to the subjects that are supplicated. The degree
will contain a parenthesis that will reflect the
subject/course content the student has supplicated
and completed. For example, degrees will be named
B.Sc. (Chemistry), B.Sc. (Mathematics),
B.Sc. (Plant Science), B.Sc. (Physics), B.Sc. (Statistics),
B.Sc. (Zoology) etc.
1.
GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1
Academic year
The
academic program of the Faculty of Science will be
based on a semester system with 2 semesters, each
of 15 weeks duration. The proposed year plan under
this scheme is shown below.
| Semester
1 |
Semester
2 |
| First
half – 10 weeks |
First
half – 5 weeks |
| Mid
semester break – 1 week |
Mid
semester break – 1 week |
| Second
half – 5 weeks |
Second
half – 10 weeks |
| Study
leave – 1 week |
Study
leave – 1 week |
| Examination–
5 weeks |
Examination
– 5 weeks |
| Vacation
– 2 weeks |
Vacation
– 4 weeks |
The
year plan will be scheduled so that minimum disturbance
will occur due to various festivals and holidays.
1.2
Subjects offered
The
Faculty of Science, University of Colombo consists
of seven academic departments, namely Chemistry, Mathematics,
Nuclear Science, Physics, Plant Sciences, Statistics
and Zoology. These departments offer courses in ten
different subject areas. In addition, Computer Science
as a subject will be offered to all students in the
Faculty through the School of Computing. The subjects
that the Faculty will offer under the new program
and the letter codes assigned to them are given below.
Subject |
Letter
Code |
| Applied
Mathematics |
AM |
| Biochemistry |
BC |
| Chemistry |
CH |
| Computer
Science |
CS |
| Environment
Science |
EN |
| Nuclear
Science |
NS |
| Physics |
PH |
| Plant
Sciences |
BT |
| Pure
Mathematics |
PM |
| Statistics |
ST |
| Zoology |
ZL |
1.3
Academic Program
The
academic program of the Faculty of Science will operate
on a Course Unit System. A course Unit is a subject
module, which has a credit value. A credit is a time-based
quantity assigned to each Course Unit, which depends
on the duration and the type of the course. One credit
is equal to 15 hours of lectures or 30 hours of practical
or a suitable combination of lectures and practicals.
The minimum and the maximum credit rating of a course
unit may vary from 1 credit to 8 credits.
The
academic program is based on subject course
units (academic) which provide the foundation
for various subjects and enhancement course
units (non-academic) which provide knowledge on
a wide range of disciplines that are required in today’s
society.
There
are two types of academic course units, namely core
and elective. Core units define the
minimum requirement that provide a foundation of any
given subject. Elective units are subject modules
offered in addition to the core modules to provide
broader knowledge on various subject areas.
The
academic program is organized at four levels, Level
1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4, which represent respectively
the first year, second year, third year and the fourth
year of study.
1.4
Medium of instruction
All
lectures and examinations of the course units will
be conducted in the English language. In the first
year, whenever necessary, assistance will be provided
in the Sinhala medium.
2.
DEGREE PROGRAM
The
students entering the Faculty of Science of the University
of Colombo may read for a Degree in the Biological
Sciences or the Physical Sciences. The Faculty will
offer two B.Sc. degree programs each for the Biological
and Physical Sciences, namely the general degree program
of 3 years duration, and the special degree program
of 4 years duration. Initially all students will be
expected to enroll in the B.Sc. general degree program.
Students who excel in the first two years will have
the opportunity of enrolling in one of a wide range
of conventional and technology/industry oriented B.Sc.
special degree programs.
2.1
General degree program
For
the general degree, students are expected to follow
course units in Levels 1, 2 and 3. During the first
two years, the Faculty will offer courses in 6 different
subject combinations for the Physical Science students
and 7 different subject combinations for the Biological
Science students. Although subject combinations are
defined in the third year as well, students will be
able to move across combinations to follow a variety
of subject modules. In the first two years, each combination
will be based on 4 main subjects. All combinations
will contain Computer Science as a subject.
A
list of subject combinations available during the
first two years for the Biological and Physical Science
streams is shown in the table (next column).
Subject
Stream |
Subject
Combinations |
Biological Sciences |
Plant Sciences, Chemistry,
Zoology, Computer Science
Plant Sciences, Biochemistry,
Zoology, Computer Science
Plant Sciences, Environment Science,
Zoology, Computer Science
Plant Sciences, Chemistry, Environment
Science, Computer Science
Plant Sciences, Chemistry, Biochemistry,
Computer Science
Zoology, Chemistry, Environment
Science, Computer Science
Zoology, Chemistry, Biochemistry,
Computer Science |
Physical Sciences |
Applied Mathematics, Physics,
Chemistry, Computer Science
Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics,
Chemistry, Computer Science
Applied Mathematics, Chemistry,
Statistics, Computer Science
Applied Mathematics, Physics,
Statistics, Computer Science
Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics,
Statistics, Computer Science
Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics,
Physics, Computer Science |
Details
of the course units offered in the available combinations
for the Physical Sciences and the Biological Sciences
are given in Annex A1-A6.
During
the first two years of study, students will be required
to register for a minimum of 30 academic credits (maximum
of 33) and 4 non-academic credits (enhancement course
units) per year. Out of the 30 academic credits, a
minimum of 18 core credits should be selected from
any 3 subjects (which will be termed as main subjects)
in the combination. All Physical Science
students are required to follow the Applied Mathematics
core course units in the first and the second years.
Students may select course units from subject areas
within and outside their stream/combination, subject
to time and space availability to fulfill the degree
requirements. During the second year, students will
be allowed to change one main subject and move into
a different combination by selecting another main
subject provided that vacancies exist. Thus, from
the main subject areas students select during the
first year, they should continue with at least two
subject areas during the second year.
During
the third year of study, students are required to
register for 30 academic credits (maximum of 33) and
4 non-academic credits. They are required to register
for 12 core credits from at least two main subject
areas that they followed during both the first and
the second year. The remaining credits can be selected
from any subject area, subject to time and space availability.
Thus, the 3-year general degree program will span
a total of 6 semesters with 90-99 academic credits
and 12 non-academic credits.
All
academic credits accumulated over the entire 3-year
period will be considered for the award of the B.Sc.
general degree. |
|
