Abstract:
Nowadays the universities are increasingly seen as stimulant for development, with
substantial contribution not only as providers of education, but also as actors
paying an active role in the development of their socio economic and cultural
surroundings. Questions like following may easily arise; how are the university
embedded in the regions? What are the facets of their contribution to the regional
development? How the Sabaragamuwa University might interact with and what is
the strength of their linkages to the regions? Thus, this research to bring the
clarifications on how higher education centers like universities contribute to
regional development and by identifying and analyzing the frameworks that
capture and describe extensively the multiple ways in which higher education
institution contribute to the regional development in the face of significant social
and economic change. The diverse roles of universities as large institutions, sources
of expertise and providers of common educational experiences are commonly the
most used to classify the regional impact of universities. From other perspective,
universities act as local integrators for regional development. The main objective
of this research is to identify the contribution of Sabaragamuwa University on
regional development. Both primary and secondary data were collected for the
research purpose. 25 samples were selected and data were analyzed using Excel
and Geographical Information System (GIS). The data revealed that there is not
much of regional development occurred through the establishment of the
university. But the economic development was occurred little bit in Pambahinna.
