General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) (Sinhala: ජෙනරාල් ශ්රිමත් ජෝන් කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක විශ්ව විද්යාලය General Sir John Kotelawala Arakshaka Vishva Vidyalaya) located at Kandawala, Ratmalana, Colombo, is state defense university of Sri Lanka which is administered by the Ministry of Defense.
The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy was established in 1980 by the Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy Act, No. 68 of 1981 as the joint defence service training institute of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services, Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force under go academic training together before they go on to respective service academy for further pre-commission training. It was named after General Sir John Kotelawala, third Prime Minister of Ceylon who donated his home for the academy. It was made a university by an amendment bill passed in Parliament on 11 October 2007 which lead to both military and civil students to be admitted.
History
The General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy (the Defence University of Sri Lanka) was inaugurated on 11 October 1980 on a estate donated by the late General Sir John Kotelawala, CH, KBE, LLD, a former Prime Minister of Ceylon. The KDU functions under the motto For The Motherland Forever, a dictum followed by General Sir John Kotelawala himself.
The KDA was instituted with the objective of educating males and females to be commissioned officers in the armed forces of Sri Lanka. It has been legally established under the Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy Act No. 68 of 1981 and is governed by a Board of Management consisting of the Secretary of the Defence as the chairman, Commanders of the tri-services, representatives of the University Grant Commission and the General Treasury, and the Commandant of the academy as members.
From 1980 to 1986, Service Officer Cadets temporarily studied engineering and physical science at the University of Colombo and University of Moratuwa, and they were awarded the degree by the same universities. In 1988, KDA was elevated to university status subsequent to proposal made to the then government headed by the President J.R. Jayewardene, thus enabling KDA to offer degrees in Defence Studies.
An amendment bill was passed in Parliament on 18 March 2007 granting the status of a national university to the KDA. On 11 October 2007 KDA was renamed as the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.
KDU opened its southern campus at Sooriyawewa, Sri Lanka on 5 May 2015.
The opening of the University Hospital of General Sir John Kotelawala Defense University was held on 21 May 2017. KDU become first university in Sri Lanka, running its own University Hospital with modern facilities. The university hospital provide medical services to general public and service personnel free of charge.
In 2018, parliament of Sri Lanka passed the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (Special Provisions) Act to abolish medical faculty of South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine and to transfer the students to General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University. It is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.