Rare study abroad opportunity opens in Sri Lanka
For SUNY Cortland students specializing in communication disorders and sciences, the balmy January sunshine of Sri Lanka could come with a unique new study abroad opportunity launching next winter break.
“Our students will be going in winter, so it will be tropical,” said Nimisha Muttiah, an associate professor in the Communication Disorders and Sciences Department who developed and will lead the new two-week course, A Clinical and Cultural Experience in Sri Lanka , with her colleague, Associate Professor Deborah Sharp.
“It will be a nice change for students who don’t like winter,” Muttiah said. “Sri Lanka has been promoted as a top travel destination globally most recently listed on BBC’s ‘25 best places to travel in 2025’ .”
The new course also offers an unusual overseas fieldwork opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students who focus on communication disorders and sciences. Future trips might widen to include SUNY undergraduates interested in related professions, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy and special education.
The course became a reality when SUNY Cortland International Programs recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University of Kelaniya in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, an island country historically known as Ceylon that shares a maritime border with the Maldives in the southwest and India in the northwest.
Daniela Baban Hurrle, who directs International Programs at SUNY Cortland, said that when the course is held during January 2026, it will be SUNY Cortland’s first study abroad program focused on the field of communication disorders and sciences.
“Additionally, this is the only faculty-led study abroad program within the SUNY system that specifically focuses on communication disorders and sciences,” Baban Hurrle added.
That includes the speech and hearing disorders major for undergraduate students and the communication disorders major for graduate students, added Kayla DeCoste, assistant director of study abroad, who’s arranging for the travel aspects of the course through the university’s International Programs Office.
She’s identified eight other SUNY universities that offer this major, and those students could benefit from SUNY Cortland's new, discipline-focused option abroad.
“Students in these majors would love to go abroad, but there aren’t opportunities to take courses in their own majors,” DeCoste said.
“We’ve had really good initial feedback from our Cortland students, maybe because we’re pulling from a larger target, both undergraduate and graduate students.”
The University of Kelaniya has the country’s only speech pathology degree and hosts a multidisciplinary clinic, Ayati Clinic, serving 12,000 children a year.
The course’s clinical focus will enable graduate students to earn seven full days of their necessary clinical hours and for undergraduate students to observe with both groups earning three credit hours.
“This is really an intensive clinical experience,” Muttiah said. “And to have a unique experience they would never see at SUNY Cortland. It’s a chance for our students to get that experience with clients with disabilities in another country.”
Muttiah has a bachelor’s degree from The Bangalore University, India, and a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
After earning her doctorate from The Pennsylvania State University in 2015, she returned to her native land to teach during those intervening years at University of Kelaniya in Ragama, Sri Lanka.
“Since moving here from Sri Lanka in 2022, I’ve been thinking of ways I could bridge Sri Lanka and the U.S.,” Muttiah said. “As a speech-language pathologist and faculty member, I’ve worked in both settings. So, I knew the value of having students here traveling to Sri Lanka.
“We are going to a place that already has established speech therapy services,” Muttiah said. “We will not be flying in and out and leaving anyone without services. And it’s an opportunity for Sri Lankan speech therapy students to work with students from the United States.”
Muttiah also hopes to introduce the class to the island nation’s more than 3,000-year-old traditions and culture.
That would include visiting cultural places, including Kandy, the last capital of the Sinhalese monarchy from 1469 to 1818, in the country’s central province; and traveling to the southern Sri Lanka community of Galle to experience Galle Beach and see a traditional southern Sri Lankan dance. Class members also will be exposed to Sri Lanka’s three languages — Sinhala, Tamil and English — and its Buddhist tradition by attending a temple ceremony in Kandy.
The opportunity will be launched with a small cohort of 10 to 12 participants, as is typical when a new course is developed, DeCoste said. The estimated $5,700 to $6,000 cost will include not only about $4,000 in typical on-campus course expenses but $1,700 to $2,000 in combined flight, in-country travel and living expenses and a little spending money. The later costs vary and will be finalized within the fall semester study abroad timeframe.
Scholarships are available through International Programs, DeCoste said. A prospective participant with at least a 2.5 grade point average who applies for one has an approximately 90% chance of success, DeCoste said. Winter and summer break study abroad scholarships are typically around $500.
The University of Kelaniya isn’t yet planning to send its students to SUNY Cortland. But Sri Lanka encourages such exchanges to raise its universities to the top of the world rankings and internationalize its higher education collaborations with foreign universities, and such a program could be created in the future.
The application deadline to take the course is Tuesday, April 1, for currently enrolled students and Sunday, April 13, for graduate students enrolling in the fall.
An information session on this course is set for 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb 25, in the Professional Studies Building, Room 1135.
For more information or to apply, visit A Clinical and Cultural Experience in Sri Lanka or contact DeCoste or Muttiah .
Choose an image below to start a slide show.
A herd of Indian elephants refresh in Sri Lanka
Clinicians work with a child at Atayi Clinic
University of Kelaniya's Atayi Clinic
University of Kelaniya's Atayi Clinic
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