Established more than 45 years ago the Faculty of Applied Science of the University is one of the oldest among the Faculties of Science in Sri Lanka. Since inception it has grown much in intellectual capacity, teaching and research facilities, span of curricula and student numbers. At present it houses 8 academic departments, with nearly 100 academic staff members, over 1000 undergraduate students and close to 100 postgraduate students.
The Faculty has been in the forefront of pursuing several challenging and pioneering developments in the science education in Sri Lankan universities, including teaching in science in Sinhala, emphasizing applied aspects of science such as fisheries biology, food science, polymer science, forestry and environmental science and statistics and management in the B.Sc. curricula.