Commitment to community and playing our role as global citizens is at the heart of what we do. This doesn’t mean all necessarily taking up opportunities overseas. It’s about leveraging our learning and resources for the benefit of those around us and our precious natural environment.
ABOUT US
DEVELOPING REMARKABLE CITIZENS
While we couldn’t be prouder of our roots in healthcare education, we’ve evolved into a teacher of many discipline areas – bound together by our quality standards, values and quest for innovation.
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Dr.Kithsiri Edirisinghe
CEO/Founder, Director Academics – IIHS
MBBS, MSc, MD (Medical Administration) | Master Trainer (Australia) | Cert. IVLP (USA)
Welcome to the International Institute of Health Sciences, Sri Lanka.
We’re an organization driven by a commitment to our local and global community. We have a 20-year history of drawing on best practices and approaches from around the world to deliver innovatively, sometimes ground-breaking programmes in healthcare education, research, and community development. Along the way, we’ve helped professionalize nursing and allied health education in Sri Lanka and the region.
We lead our local sector championing the benefits of Sri Lankan education to our region and beyond. IIHS is very proud that many of the world’s leading universities have chosen to partner with us – in mutually beneficial relationships involving articulation, academic exchange, curriculum sharing and global mobility and citizenship projects.
We count Coventry, Aberdeen, Deakin, Metropolia and JCU universities and many others as friends and partners. But most of all we’re thrilled for our many wonderful, passionate, driven students and alumni. They’ve travelled far and wide in the world to become fabulous ambassadors for IIHS values and passion, and the best of Sri Lankan education.
Our BOARD
Dr. Nihal De Silva
Founder | Chairman | Dean
MD, MPH, ACOG, MPH
Dr. Nihal De Silva is an Obstetrical and Gynecological surgeon who has served in the faculty of four foreign universities including Stanford University, California, USA where he did his Fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine and Fetal surgery. His MD is from the National Osaka University and the MPH from the University of Hawaii. Dr. Nihal De Silva is a Fellow and Diplomate of the American College and American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and presently serves in the National Human Resources Development Council and a sub-committee of the Sri Lanka National Olympic Council.
Dr.Kithsiri Edirisinghe
Co-Founder | CEO | Director Academics,
Strategy & International Affairs
MBBS, MSc, MD (Medical Administration)
Master Trainer (Australia) | Cert. IVLP (USA)
Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe has over 25 years of experience in the health industry and over 12 years of experience in the education industry. He is an experienced medical administrator, managing hospitals and has also established and operationalized a chain of hospitals in the private sector. Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe has been involved as an academic in healthcare training and development for over a decade, where he possesses a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and he is also a Certified Master Trainer, Australia.
Dr. Mahesh Gunesekera
Director
MBBS, MSc (Medical Administration
PG Dip (Disaster Management), IDHA
Dr. Mahesh Gunesekera is a Medical Administrator and Humanitarian worker with extensive experience in public health and disaster response and recovery programs. He has over 27 years of professional experience in Asia, Africa and Europe, while heading the health programs of IFRC in Europe. A specialist in Health Management, Health Strategy Development and Implementation, he also has extensive experience in coordinating and managing development and emergency health programs in different contexts.
Dr. Patrick Hemalal
Director
BSc, MPhil, PhD (UK)
Dr. Patrick Hemalal has vast experience in the areas of Research & Development and Quality Assurance. He was the former Director of Research & Development, QA Innovations at Hemas Holdings PLC which is one of the largest conglomerates in Sri Lanka.
Ms. Stephanie Gloria Anthony
Director
MBA, MSc Health Administration, PG Dip Hospital Administration
Ms. Stephanie Anthony has over 13 years’ experience in the service sector, predominantly in the healthcare education sector for over 10 years. She currently works alongside the state sector nurses in Sri Lanka to promote professional development in the Sri Lankan health care sector. Her research expertise is in student learning styles in healthcare and quality in education. She is also an Honorary Administrator for the University of Aberdeen Scotland.
Mr. Tharindu Ishan Edirisinghe
Director
Operations BEng, GMICE, MBA
Mr. Tharindu Edirisinghe graduated from the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus with Bachelors in Civil Engineering (Hons.) in 2015. Worked as a Civil Engineer at Infrastructure project for Sierra Construction for duration of 2 years. Later moving to Civil and Structural Engineering Consultants to work as a Structural/Civil Engineer for 2 years where he worked on the design of several high-rise apartment buildings.
Mr. Carl Jones
Director
BA (Hons), MA (Comms), currently reading for PhD at Deakin University
Mr. Carl Jones has years of experience in education marketing in prestigious Universities including Deakin University, Australia. Carl has represented Deakin University at industry, community, and government events, and has been a regular presenter on international education marketing and career development in various international forums. His work has seen him recognized with University Awards in 2014 and 2019. He is also the Founder and Managing Director of Study Village, a student mentoring service operating in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Mr. Jones is currently reading for his Ph.D. in education sociology at Deakin University.
“We’re an organization inspired to develop people in healthcare careers. We fuse compassion, and commitment to sustainability and innovation into everything we do. Drawing inspiration and best practices from partners around the world, we’re driven to improve the quality of lives of professionals by developing their personalities, their professionalism and their humanity.
Our vision is that we are a positive and creative learning community that embraces its history and prepares students for life.
Our values are: Respect, Effort, Service, Positivity, Excellence, Creativity and Teamwork.
Our approach is characterized by the following:
• We commit to Inclusivity where nobody is left behind.
• We strive to make international education accessible to regional students.
• We seek to make all training programmes affordable to most needed communities.
• We strive to Transform youth to professionals ready to succeed at home or abroad.
• We adhere to international quality standards and high value consumer wellbeing.
• We stress Innovation by inculcating modern trends and technology in education.
• We provide Choice in education programmes.
To Transform People, Community and Landscape through Innovation.
Our STORY
Originally named American College of Health Sciences (ACHS), our college was formed for the exclusive purpose of training qualified nurses who could be employed all over the world. ACHS was conceived by Dr Leonard Ranasinghe who had practiced emergency medicine for many years in the USA. ACHS Nursing courses were based on that of Pacific Union College (PUC) in California. Over the course his experience in the USA, Dr Ranasinghe became increasingly aware of the world-wide shortage of nurses and the commensurate opportunities available for qualified candidates, not only in the USA but around the world.
2002 - 2003
With this in mind, ACHS was officially opened in November 2002, and the college commenced its first intake in January 2003.
October, 2002
In October 2002, ACHS was granted an articulation arrangement with the long-established nursing program at Pacific Union College, meaning students who wished to complete a bachelor's degree could transfer to the American college. The curriculum was approved by the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka.
2006
In 2006, ACHS partnered Hemas Hospital (Pvt) Ltd to train 150 nurses and moved to a larger facility in the north of Colombo. To reflect its broader, global ambitions, the college was rebranded International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS) in 2008. The Australian Government helped facilitate an affiliation with Deakin University of Australia. Today, IIHS works with more than 20 international Universities affiliations. Since 2006, IIHS has been led by its entrepreneurial CEO Dr Kithsiri Edirisinghe. The years since has seen IIHS broaden its discipline spread to include biomedicine, education, business, physiotherapy among many other allied health fields. We’ve also educated over 4000 graduates and grown campus facilities to become the best of breed health educators in South Asia.
2021
2021 will see IIHS expand to offer locally accredited degree qualifications to local students and we will recruit large numbers of international students from all over the region and the world to our new multiversity campus, again located in Colombo’s north.
Accreditations Memberships
Pathways TO THE WORLD
A Remarkable Array of
World-Class Education Pathways
Throwing around the word opportunity is a cliché in education. But IIHS has worked hard for 19 years to present local and international students an impressive array of pathways to study healthcare and other disciplines in some of the world’s finest institutions. In this time, we have also developed our capacity to a standard where some of the best in the world have recognized our pathways. We are now a degree-awarding institution in our own right, providing an unparalleled blend of healthcare education options for Sri Lankan students. We are very fortunate to enjoy rich, multifaceted partnerships with well-known brands in Sri Lanka like Coventry University, Aberdeen, Deakin University, ECU, Murdoch and Open Universities Malaysia. But our discipline and country destination spread is also filled out with other leading international universities such as Aberdeen University, one of the finest medical schools in the world, and Coventry University, a highly ranked leader in transnational education. Together they provide options to ‘top up’ local diplomas with international degrees (known as articulated pathways) and transnational education, or leading brands (such as Coventry University) offering world-class curriculum taught locally.
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International Institute of Health Sciences
International Institute of Health Sciences
Multiversity
No. 312/15, St. Joseph Mw, Kerawalapitiya Rd, Wattala