Both International & National norms require that persons with disabilities are provided with special facilities in order to help them pursue their education on equal terms with persons without disabilities. National Universities in Sri Lanka admit a limited number of students with disabilities (SWDs) from among those who satisfy the minimum requirements for University admission under the category of ‘special intake’. The total such number of students enrolled in national universities is small compared to overall enrolment. While these students are, by the very nature of their disabilities, denied easy access to many of the programmes and facilities offered by the Universities, whatever special measures that have been taken to put them on equal terms with others in carrying out their study programmes at the University are far from adequate. They follow the courses without any special teaching methods or aids and experience many difficulties including nonexistence of wheelchair access to buildings, lack of information and suitable reading material, and appropriate accommodation, absence of special teaching methods, learning strategies and assessment methods. This contributes to low grades in examinations, inability to participate in internships, poor interaction with fellow students and disadvantages in job opportunities. In this context, we believe that promoting and developing access to inclusive education should be given priority in order to treat the SWDs without discrimination and to protect their rights. The aim of this project is the inclusion of SWDs in the higher educational institutes of Sri Lanka by accommodating and adapting suitable environments for them. The project has number of specific objectives of creating community awareness, developing competency of staff of the partner universities in Sri Lanka, establishing conducive learning environment for students with disabilities.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDD) are one of the world’s leading medical and societal challenges, and there are now expected to be 50 million people worldwide suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. Sri Lanka is considered as a multi-ethnic country with one of the fastest ageing populations in South Asia, and the prevalence of NDD is also rapidly increasing. At the same time, there are no universities or any other educational institution that conduct training programmes in such areas. NDD has far-reaching and often underestimated consequences for informal caregivers (family members, friends and neighbours providing unpaid care), in terms of quality of life, health and loss of income. Therefore, creating of trained professionals for treating the elderly with NDD and support the informal caregivers is a great need for the country. A consortium of five European and four Sri Lankan partners that are covering the area of the highest population density will work together to deliver concrete tangible results:-Eight courses that will represent a total of 30 credits (1500 hours) per the Sri Lanka qualifications framework (SLQF) system.-The courses will generate a program that will be accreditated as either a postgraduate certificate, postgraduate diploma and Masters by coursework at the four Sri Lankan universities. - Eight to sixteen continuous professional development training modules are developed. - Twenty Sri Lankan staff will be trained in delivering the courses. The impact after the project has ended is that Sri Lanka will have modernised and increased the capacity to train healthcare students and healthcare professionals about NDD without any need for further support at this level, which makes the project notably sustainable. The fundamental impact, though, will be the enhancement of the provision of care for patients and their families with NDD.

Energy services are essential for the development of any society. Sri Lanka has an energy growth of 6-8% every year, starting at a more than 60% fossil-fuel dependency. To fulfill its commitment towards the Intergovermental Panel och Climate Change to decarbonize the country it needs to rapidly transform the sector towards renewable energy sources of a varity of kind, using the abundant in-country energy resources.One of the essential steps in this process is to develop a high-level, efficient higher education, with a perspective of increased collaboration between academia and industry. This education must reach out to the different parts of the country. The Sri Lanka universities have also a need to modernize the higher education in so that students will be more prone to create new companies in the renewable sector, with a societal perspective. The education should thus become more student-centered, allowing for the students to explore new avenues through global learning options.The EUSL-ENERGY project takes these perspectives into account and creates a high-level, so far not yet existing joint MSc program in the energy sector between four universities. The project take a full circular economy, as well as ecological, perspective with raw materials and considerations of how the waste from this, and other, sector(s) can be re-utilized towards a more energy-efficient society in a financial sustainable way. The EUSL-ENERGY Master program uses the latest pedagogical developments towards “flipped classrooms”, case- and challenge-based digital education, shareable learning units and MOOCs. All the education is performed within the framework of the EIT-label perspective innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as ensuring that the graduates possess the “21st century soft skills” that employers ask for. The program is as such at the forefront of contemporary educational methodology, and introduces a new educational dimension in the energy sector in Sri Lanka.

Major changes are needed to develop sustainable agricultural and food systems in Vietnam, Philippines and Sri Lanka as large proportion of these countries agricultural growth has stemmed from expanded or more intensive use of land and other natural resources, and relatively heavy use of fertilizer and other agro-chemicals increasing the risk of residues in food. Agroecology could be an important approach to meet this general objective - sustainable agricultural and food systems, - as it designs, develops, and promotes the transition towards biodiversity and low external input-based, socially sound farming and food systems. Thus, the CDAE project will create a new MSc programme in a specialized academic area and key regulatory/policy issue, namely “Agroecology” that is as much absent from Partner HEI graduate and postgraduate programmes as it is needed, address this absence and the needs of the region and incorporate ecological principles and knowledge into the study of cropping and farming systems so that professionals are well prepared for the future design and management of a sustainable agriculture and organic farming techniques. In addition, the “Agroecology Labs” that will be established in the participating universities will promote sustainable agriculture and will act as foci of research innovation and cooperation in the area. Moreover, the Agroecology Knowledge Hubs will be a powerful tool for the initial and continued training of the students and academics and will be used in combination with the Labs to ensure continued research cooperation among European and Asian HEIs as well as updating the staff’s knowledge and skills.

The overall aim of the UN4DRR project is to modernize the courses related to Disaster Risk Reduction and Management integrating GIS/RS applications as the significant part of the course content. The long-term effect will be to educate future experts for prevention and management of natural and human-induced disasters (e.g. fires) in the Indian Ocean Rim supporting national and EU policies. The project encourages the cooperation with national authorities, public and private sector offering joint DRRM initiatives and access to short courses for use of GIS/RS via online/offline mode. The project also motivates a more proactive cross-region dialogue in DRRM related educational program in the realization of capacity building and internationalization.It is expected that the course programs at IOR HEIs in GIS/RS will improve the competencies of the graduates of the Disaster’s Management Program, especially when they are capable of applying GIS/RS for disaster mitigation. These programs will enable multi-disciplinary skills whereby the graduates are motivated to apply many of their previous competences in coping with the disasters. The RS/GIS technologies are well-suited for integration of most of the students’ previous learned skills.Recently, the application of GIS/RS in disaster management is not only for faculties of sciences and engineering, but can also be applied when dealing with social and humanitarian issues. Therefore, it is considered that the implementation of GIS/RS in disaster mitigation is urgent, especially the disasters are so frequently occurred. GIS/RS is an important tool in disaster mitigation and this science is developing so fast and rapid that it requires frequent upgrading and provide new knowledge to academic staff as well as the students.To cope with the fast-changing technology of RS/GIS with applicative knowledge, skills and attitudes, the updated programes will also offer IORs HEIs the opportunity to increase academic and research output