MyDegree.lk – Helping You Choose The Ideal Career Path

If you have just finished your G.C.E A/L exams and not sure what career path you wish to take, then you’re not alone. There are many more like you out there. If you need some help on what paths you can take, you can seek advice from SL2College. This is essentially an educational nonprofit organization whose goal is to help Sri Lankan students with their higher education goals by providing information and guidance as necessary. Among the many services that they offer is the MyDegree program.

The program is a search engine that lists all University Degree programs carried out in Sri Lankan Universities. These degree programs are all State University degrees that are filtered based on the subjects that you chose for your G.C.E. Advanced Level exams.

Using MyDegree

The first thing you notice about the site is the color scheme. It’s an attractive sky-blue and the text is eye catching.

Clicking the “Get Started” button navigates you to a page that gives you a few tips before proceeding with the app. For example, you need at least a Simple Pass (more commonly referred to as an “S” grade) in all three approved subjects at a single sitting, you are given a minimum of three attempts to re-sit a G.C.E A/L Examination for university admission. You also need to have a minimum mark of 30% for the Common General Paper. These requirements are the bare minimum you would need to enroll in any of the state university programmes.

Once you click the “Got it” button you are then given the option to choose your A/L stream. Your choices are:

• Arts
• Commerce
• Physical Science
• Biological Science

Upon selection of a stream, you must then select the subjects that you chose for your A/L exam along with the corresponding results.

The next tab to fill out includes details such as your name and email (both of which are optional) and your district and medium of study (these are mandatory). If you’re wondering why your name and email address are requested, it’s to notify you about events hosted by SL2College throughout the year, and not for spam purposes. I will hold SL2College to this and submit my personal details as well.

From there, you are then given a list of all eligible degree programs based on the subjects you chose.  As an example, I selected Business Studies, Economics and Information and Communication Technology with the results being “A” for all 3. The viable options were then displayed along with other degree programmes that I was eligible for irrespective of the subject stream I had chosen.

Choosing a Degree Program

Now that all the available degrees were listed, all I had to do was simply click one of the degree programs. Upon clicking the program, the next step is to select the University that you want to follow the program in. Each university has a variant of the primary result so you can select exactly which program would best suits you. Clicking the University then launches a window where you can see specific details such as the Faculty offering the program, duration of the program, annual intake, O/L and/or A/L exam requirements, etc.

Furthermore, you can also see the full scope of the degree and it the platform also offers you the possible employment details and what career you can follow upon completion of the program. The results also list down the website of the university so that you can follow up on the degree program via the university if you require additional information.

Regardless of the stream chosen, the degree programs irrespective of the subject stream are all the same. I actually had no clue that some of these degree programs even existed till I used MyDegree. Take for example, the B.A. In Peace and Conflict Resolution offered by the University of Kelaniya. This program allows the student to learn about peace and conflict related issues in Sri Lanka and globally as well. Upon completion of the program, you can seek employment in Embassies and High commissions of Sri Lanka to represent Sri Lanka at the international level and also engage in missions working diplomatic missions.

How Useful Is MyDegree?

In 2 words, extremely useful. Few platforms such as this exists, offering students the perfect opportunity they need to see exactly what career path they can follow upon completion of their A/L examinations. Rather than being overloaded by information about what you should do, you can take your time and read about each and every program offered. Then you can see which one suits you and from there you can enroll in it.

A small improvement that could be added would be to filter the programs based on location of the University. For example, I was interested in the B.A. In Peace and Conflict Resolution, until I saw that it was offered by the University of Kelaniya, which is a tad too far to travel for my liking. Similarly, there may be students who find the ideal program for themselves, yet cannot follow it due to geographical restrictions. Sorting the programs out via location would greatly help students in making informed decisions.

Another small bug I found was that of you wish to change your stream and subjects, you can do so but the grades themselves do not reset. If you’re a tad absent-minded and leave the results as it is whilst changing then subjects, the results may tend to vary so if the developer can keep an eye on that, it would alleviate any uncomfortable scenarios.

Overall, MyDegree is indeed a useful application to have for both students who have finished their GCE A/L exam and also those interested in pursuing higher studies.

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” ― Albert Einstein

We salute SL2College for the initiative taken with MyDegree.  If you are interested in what SL2College is, you can click here. It should be noted that SL2College is not endorsed by or is neither affiliated with UGC (University Grants Commission), Sri Lanka. Nonetheless, if you just finished your A/L’s and want to know what degree to pursue, MyDegree is a good place to start.

Have you used MyDegree? What are your thoughts on it? Leave a comment in the section below.