A higher-learning centre spanning STEM and the social sciences and humanities, built alongside a resource, library and archival centre that safeguards community records.
What it is
Two things under one roof: a higher-learning institution covering science, technology, engineering and mathematics as well as the social sciences and humanities, and a resource, library and archival centre. The archive is not an afterthought. Its purpose is to collect, digitise and safeguard family papers, community records and oral histories from Point Pedro, Valvettithurai and the wider Jaffna peninsula, much of which exists today in a single fragile copy.
Why here
Jaffna's Public Library was destroyed by fire in 1981 and later rebuilt; it remains the clearest regional symbol of how much a community's written memory can lose in a single event, and how deliberately it has to be rebuilt afterward. The University of Jaffna, founded in 1974, already serves the peninsula, and this institution is planned to complement that existing landscape rather than duplicate it. Families who could afford to sent children abroad for university in the decades during and after the war; many who stayed had fewer options close to home.
How it starts
The campus itself is the last piece of the Foundation's roadmap, planned for Phase 3, from 2031 onward, once earlier phases have a track record to build on. The archival work starts far earlier, in Phase 1: collecting and scanning family documents, recording oral histories with elders while that is still possible, and working with existing schools and the University of Jaffna wherever it is useful rather than starting from nothing.