of Sabaragamuwa university on regional development: a study with special reference to Pambahinna area

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.