PGIAR fosters excellence in scholarship, innovation and social responsibility in archaeology and related subjects guided by academic teamwork.

Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology (PGIAR) of the University of Kelaniya fulfills its legislative mission of advancing, dissemination and preserving knowledge in archaeology and related subjects through the provision of a training, learning and a research environment for the aspiring specialist and the interested public in archaeology and related subjects. PGIAR believes that knowledge in history, culture, heritage, art and traditional knowledge systems plays a vital role in social and economic development of a society and in the formation of a healthy national identity in an era of accelerated globalization of cultures..

Train competitive specialists who are capable of engage in high level research and who can significantly contribute to the advancement of knowledge and professional standards in archaeology and related subjects and also to make such knowledge accessible to the interested public.

Expanding access to postgraduate education, professional training, and high-level research in archaeology and related subjects to the serious and aspiring archaeologists, art historians, heritage managers, archaeological scientists, museologists, anthropologists, and historians and also making an environment that would disseminate such knowledge to the interested national and international public and to the interested national and international institutions such as schools, government departments working in the fields of culture, archaeology, and heritage.

Objectives

1. Expanding access to postgraduate education, professional training, and high-level research in archaeology and related subjects to the serious and aspiring archaeologists, art historians, heritage managers, archaeological scientists, museologists, anthropologists, and historians.

2. Providing professional training to aspiring skilled workers that are required in the field of archeology; heritage preservation and management; conservation science; and museology.

3. Providing quality and scientific knowledge in archaeology/heritage to primary and secondary education sector of the country.

4. Disseminating quality and scientific knowledge in archaeology and related subjects amongst general public to contribute to national development, cultural 'inclusivity', and to the development of human values, ethics and civic sensitiveness in general