Certificate Course on Postgraduate Research is a 6 months program conducted by the Research Training Committee of the Centre for Research Development and Innovation (CRDI) of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo. The program has been designed for the applicant who possess an undergraduate degree from any recognized local or foreign university, to improve the quality of post-graduate research in the Universities and other higher education institutes in Sri Lanka by enhancing research skills, knowledge and attitudes of the research students.
The overall objective of the course is to improve the quantity and quality of postgraduate research in the Universities and other higher education institutes in Sri Lanka by enhancing research skills, knowledge and attitudes of the research students.
- To identify the responsibilities of a research student at different levels of postgraduate research.
- To identify and carry out initial communications with a suitable supervisor.
- To identify the dynamics of the student-supervisor relationships.
- To get sensitized on effective use of library and search of information through different search engines
- To appreciate the importance of regulations, ethics and moral responsibilities in research
- To understand the process of obtaining ethical clearance
- To get an understanding of the study designs used in research
- To get an overview of clinical trials
- To be able to appreciate different data collecting methods that could be adopted.
- To appreciate the different data analysis methods including statistical methods that can be applied in research.
- To understand the process of applying effectively to grants
- To write a research/project proposal
- To develop skills in writing abstracts, research papers and theses
- To develop research presentation and communication skills
- To develop skills in publishing research findings
- To sensitize the need of researchers to be effectively engaged in new developments associated with research such as translational research and collaborative research.
- To understand the dynamics of establishing research collaborations
- Duration: 6 months
- Credit hours: 192
The applicant should possess an undergraduate degree from any recognized local or foreign university.
Priority will be given to those who are registered for a postgraduate research degree or those planning for a postgraduate research degree.
The course committee will review the application forms and selections would be carried out by the committee. Priority will be given to those who are already registered for a postgraduate research degree or those planning for a postgraduate research degree confirmed by the potential supervisor.
Online real time teaching and onsite teaching
- Lectures, delivered by local and international research experts
- Workshops, conducted by local and international research experts
- Group work, facilitated by research experts with participants from same stages and different stages of research to share and learn
Tutor-guided study time
- Learning inputs delivered through an online platform as videos, webinars and slide presentations and pdf documents.
- Tutorials and case discussions developed through online forums for the students to engage at pre-scheduled times during the week.
- Students are expected to maintain regular online activity which will be monitored by the module coordinator.
- The teaching-learning material for a particular module shall be uploaded onto the learning management system after the teaching activity and shall be available for access throughout the duration of that module.
There would be an assessment at the end of each module and the certificate would be awarded to those obtaining >50% for each module plus an attendance >80% for the course and for each module.
Assessments would be summative assessments specific for each module. Each module will have an ‘End of module assessment’ at end of each module. These will be summative assessments which will contribute to the final cumulative score.
- The Director, all the advisors and the coordinators of the Centre for Research Development and Innovation (CRDI), Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.
- Content experts from the academic staff members from the Departments of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.
- Retired research experts of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo.
- Content experts from other Universities in Sri Lanka.
- International resource persons in the online platform and through Skype.
Course Fee: Rs. 50,000/-
- Application fee Rs 1,000/-
- Library fee Rs 3,000/-
Dr. Hermali Silva,
Program Coordinator,
Phone: 071 856 5257 (Ms. Malkanthi Fernando, Secretary, CRDI)
Email: ccpr@med.cmb.ac.lk