Harsha Wijayawardhana led important technical work supporting the digital transformation of Sri Lanka’s higher-education administration. Two related but distinct initiatives form this record: the rule-based system used by the University Grants Commission to select students for public universities, and the National Higher Education Management Information System, or N-HEMIS.
UGC university-selection automation
In 2010, the University Grants Commission and Ministry of Higher Education commissioned Theekshana to develop and customize a student-selection and administration system. The work was funded through the World Bank-supported Improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education project.
As Chief Technology Officer of Theekshana, Harsha was responsible for translating a complex body of university admission policy into a workable software architecture. The resulting application used a rule-based database, selection algorithms and a dashboard to support the allocation of qualified applicants to courses of study across Sri Lanka’s public universities.
The Business Logic Rule Engine
University selection is not a simple ranking exercise. The system had to interpret changing admission rules, applicant data and course-placement requirements consistently. Harsha designed a Business Logic Rule Engine that converted selection and admission rules into structured logic that could be stored, applied and revised within the system.
The development team implemented specialized algorithms to process the stored rules and admissions data. This separated policy logic from routine processing and allowed successive versions of the software to accommodate operational changes without treating every selection cycle as an entirely new application.
From selection data to administrative decisions
The dashboard and database supported the UGC’s administration of the selection process, bringing rules, applicant information and selection outcomes into a structured environment. The system’s longevity—approximately eight years with several versions and a maintenance agreement recorded in 2018—demonstrates that it became an operational service rather than a short-lived prototype.
N-HEMIS: sector-wide information for higher education
N-HEMIS was established to provide national information for planning, monitoring and evaluating Sri Lanka’s higher-education sector. The UGC’s contemporary account states that the German Higher Education Information System Agency provided technical assistance, UCSC served as the Sri Lankan counterpart, IRQUE coordinated implementation and the World Bank provided funding.
The World Bank distinguished the national N-HEMIS from university-level U-HEMIS installations. N-HEMIS supported sector-wide planning and monitoring, while U-HEMIS computerized university operations and supplied information to the national system. The completed N-HEMIS application operated online at www.nhemis.lk with core higher-education data loaded into it.
Ajantha Ratnayake’s coordination
Ajantha Ratnayake coordinated the N-HEMIS initiative and is publicly identified as the EMIS Manager for the World Bank-funded IRQUE/HETC higher-education development programme. A contemporary 2008 report also identified him as the Ministry of Higher Education’s IT Specialist in an official delegation to Germany. In 2010, he joined German collaborators Peter Müßig-Trapp and Hans Dicken in presenting international cooperation on the open-source decision-support system eduSTORE.
Harsha’s N-HEMIS role
Harsha’s professional record identifies him as Chief Technology Officer for Theekshana’s involvement in N-HEMIS. Theekshana’s institutional project register records its N-HEMIS work during 2009–2010 as maintenance of the National Higher Education Management Information System. His contribution should therefore be described as CTO-level participation in implementation and maintenance—not as sole authorship of the original national system.
Historical distinction: the UGC university-selection application and N-HEMIS were separate systems. Harsha’s specific design of the selection rule engine and algorithms is directly documented. His N-HEMIS contribution is documented as CTO-level involvement through Theekshana, working within the wider Ministry–UGC–UCSC–IRQUE collaboration coordinated by Ajantha Ratnayake.
Sources: Theekshana — Harsha Wijayawardhana project and technical profile; Theekshana institutional project register; UGC Newsletter, 2009, N-HEMIS account; World Bank IRQUE completion report; Daily News archive — Ministry delegation to Germany, 2008; and EUNIS proceedings reference to the 2010 eduSTORE presentation.