Karunasena Kodituwakku

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix = The Honourable Dr
name = Karunasena Kodituwakku
honorific-suffix =

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caption =
order = Former Minister of Education Human Resource Development and Cultural Affairs
order1 = Former Governor of the North-Western Province
constituency_MP =Colombo
parliament = Sri Lankan
majority =
term_start =1994
term_end =2004
predecessor =
successor =
birth_date = March 21, 1945
birth_place = Ceylon
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = Sri Lankan
party = United National Party
otherparty =
spouse =
partner =
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =Politician
profession =University lecturer
net worth =
religion = Buddhist


website =
footnotes =

Karunasena Kodituwakku (March 21, 1945 - ) is a Sri Lankan politician and former academic and diplomat. He was a government minister on Human Resource Development, Education, and Cultural Affairs and the Governor of the North Western Province.

Early life & education

Kodituwakku was born in Matara, Sri Lanka and received his higher education at Vidyalankara University (now the University of Kelaniya) where he gained a BA degree and obtained with a Colombo Plan scholarship from the University of New England (Australia) a MEd degree.

Academic career

Between 1968 and 1991, he served as a lecturer in Economics at the Vidyodaya University (now the University of Sri Jayewardenepura). In 1978 he was seconded to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Employment as a planning director with the responsibility for the introduction of the graduate placement scheme to help ease high unemployment among graduates in 1970's. 1983 he was appointed by the then Sri Lankan president, J.R. Jayawardena, as the competent authority of the university when the incumbent Vice Chancellor resigned his post, and July that year he was appointed its Vice Chancellor which held till April 1988. Post-graduate Management Institute, post graduate studies on forestry department, medical faculty and the library complex were started during his time as the VC. In 1986 he became the president of the University Vice-Chancellors' Federation and was elected an executive member of the London -based Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Diplomatic career

In 1988 Kodituwakku left Sri Lanka to take up Ambassadorial appointments in Tokyo (1988-1989) and Seoul (1989-1991). After his return to Sri Lanka, he was appointed as the Governor of the Northwestern Province in 1993.

Political career

Kodituwakku resigned from this position in 1994 to run for parliament from the United National Party (UNP) and was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Colombo District.

He served as an opposition MP until 2001 and during this time was the Media Spokesperson for the UNP The UNP election victory of 2001 saw him appointed as the Minister of Human Resource Development, Education, and Cultural Affairs. In 2004 electorals, Kodituwakku lost his parliamentary seat. Currently he serves as the Chief Organizer for the UNP in the Kolonnawa electorate in Colombo district.

See also

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Non_Career_Diplomats Sri Lankan Non Career Diplomats]

External links

* [http://sri_lanka.comnat.unesco.org/index.php?intIdCat=103&blnIsCat=1&intIdLang=1 UNESCO Executive Board]
* [http://www.lacnet.org/the_academic/chat/QA_Karu.shtml Q&A With Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku, The Lanka Academic]
* [http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=45877781]