Education
Visakha Vidyalaya.
Visakha Vidyalaya.
She was the 17th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Colombo. She vacated the position of Vice Chancellor when she assumed duties as the President of the University Grants Commission in 2013. Hirimburegama was born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
She is the daughter of Nalini Ratnayaka and Doctor Punchi Bandara Sannasgala, an academic researcher on Sinhala language, Sinhala literature, Pali and Sanskrit.
He is the author of 'Sinhala Saahithya Wanshaya" in the 1960s. She is the fourth out of five daughters born to the Sannasgala family.
Her early education was at prestigious Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo. She entered University of Colombo in 1977 and specialised in Botany.
She then entered the Post Graduate Institute of Agriculture (PGIA), Peradeniya and passed out in 1985 with her Masters in Agricultural Sciences.
In the same year she left for Belgium to join the Catholic University of Leuven for her Doctor of Philosophy. Kshanika married Wijaya Hiriburegama in 1986 whom she met at University of Peradeniya. She was later made the Head of the Plant Sciences Department before she was appointed as Vice-chancellor in January, 2008.
Prior to the appointment she was Head of the Department of Plant Sciences and a Member of the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka.