General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University

ජෙනරාල් ශ්‍රීමත් ජෝන් කොතලාවල ආරක්ෂක විශ්ව විද්‍යාලය
Crest of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University
Other name	KDU
Former name	General Sir John Kotelawala Defence Academy
Motto	සිය රටටමයි කවදත් (“For The Motherland Any day”)
Type	Military university
Established	11 October 1980; 43 years ago (1980-10-11)[1]
Chancellor	General SHS Kottegoda (Retd) WWV RWP RSP VSV
Vice-Chancellor	Rear Admiral Dammika Kumara(VSV USP PSC MMP)
Undergraduates	2500
Postgraduates	50
Location	Ratmalana, Colombo , Sri Lanka 6°49′04″N 79°53′25″E / 6.8177°N 79.8903°E / 6.8177; 79.8903
Affiliations	South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine, Association of Commonwealth Universities
Website	www.kdu.ac.lk
Location in Sri Lanka

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 the state defense university of Sri Lanka which is administered by the Ministry of Defense.^[2]

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 undergo 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 enabled both military and civilian students to be admitted.^[1][3]