Air Vice Marshal Indika Wickramasinghe has assumed duties as the new Vice Chancellor of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), Daily Mirror reported.
He formally took office by signing his first official document amid the chanting of pirith by the Maha Sangha.
Background
An accomplished aeronautical engineer, Wickramasinghe has held several senior engineering appointments in the Sri Lanka Air Force, including Director General General Engineering and Director General Aeronautical Engineering.
The ceremony
The assumption of duties was followed by a guard turnout, a ceremonial parade featuring KDU colours, and a tree planting ceremony. Deputy Vice Chancellors, rectors of campuses, deans of faculties, centre directors, senior tri-service and administrative officials, officer cadets and day scholars attended.
Priorities set out
Addressing the deans of KDU faculties later in the morning, the new Vice Chancellor outlined his vision for his tenure. He identified improving the university’s overall standards through quality education, strengthening academic excellence and increasing research output as key priorities.
Context
KDU, established under the Ministry of Defence, trains officer cadets alongside fee-paying civilian students across faculties including medicine, engineering, law and management. Its research and development capacity was among the areas examined in the pre-budget discussion on integrating defence R&D centres in August.
He succeeds Rear Admiral Dammika Kumara
Two further newsrooms have since carried the story and named the outgoing Vice Chancellor, answering what Daily Mirror left out.
Wickramasinghe succeeds Rear Admiral Dammika Kumara, who relinquished the post upon completion of his tenure, Ada Derana reported. Hiru News gave the same account, saying Kumara stepped down after finishing his term.
Both outlets placed the formal assumption of duties at the KDU premises in Ratmalana, in the presence of senior academic, administrative and military officials, and both attributed the announcement to a Ministry of Defence statement — which also settles where the appointment was announced, though not which authority made it.
Ada Derana and Hiru describe Wickramasinghe’s background slightly differently from Daily Mirror. Both say he brings experience in defence studies, strategic studies and aerospace engineering, where Daily Mirror emphasised his Air Force engineering appointments as Director General General Engineering and Director General Aeronautical Engineering.
The handover comes three days after Kumara, as sitting Vice Chancellor, received France’s Order of Maritime Merit at a Colombo embassy ceremony on 31 August, cited for his work building the Sri Lanka–France Regional Centre for Maritime Studies. Neither outlet linked the honour to his departure, and neither said the award was a valedictory one.
Still not reported
No outlet has said when the appointment formally took effect, which authority made it, or how long Kumara’s tenure ran. None reports whether a successor process was held or whether the post rotates between the services — Kumara is a naval officer and Wickramasinghe an Air Force officer.
