Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya delivered the 2026 Oxford Sri Lanka Graduates Association (OSGA) Annual Lecture at the University of Oxford on Wednesday, titled “The Politics of Development: Sri Lanka and Beyond”.
Speaking to students, academics and researchers at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, the Prime Minister set out a reading of Sri Lanka’s transitions framed around four threads — women’s political participation, the care economy, social justice, and the difficulty of converting public movements into durable institutional reform. The lecture was billed as the first formal academic engagement of her UK trip.
The visit also includes the 43rd Commonwealth of Learning Board of Governors Meeting, where she is scheduled to participate in proceedings as a member of the board.
The UK programme has so far paired political engagement — the Foreign Secretary, the Education Secretary and the British Council on day one — with the academic strand. Sri Lanka’s NPP government has used Amarasuriya’s academic background to project policy seriousness in capitals where the country has historically been read through its bilateral debt and tourism profile.
The Prime Minister is the first Sri Lankan head of government to deliver the OSGA Annual Lecture since the series resumed under its current format.
