The Faculty of Arts of the University of Jaffna , is an established Faculty with a rich and diverse heritage. It is also dynamic and future focused with a contemporary approach towards education life and culture. It gives pleasure to record the brief history and achievements of the Faculty of Arts during the last 32 years (1974- 2006). Faculty of Arts is situated in the main Campus of the University at Thirunelvely. When the Jaffna , Campus of the University of Sri Lanka was inaugurated on 6th October 1974 , Prof.K.Indrapala was the founder Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. This Faculty was first known as the Faculty of Humanities. It had only four departments of study namely- Tamil, Sinhala, Hindu Civilization and History. Later, the Faculty of Arts was established with six new departments of study namely- Economics, Geography, Islamic Civilization Sanskrit Philosophy and Language & Cultural studies. In 1980, the Department of Education was established with facilities for Post Graduate Studies, namely, Post Graduate Diploma, Masters and Doctorate. In 1984, the Department of Siddha Medicine was established in the Faculty of Arts. The Ramanathan Academy of Fine Arts which came under University administration on 1st January 1975 , functions at present with department of Music and Dance. The Academy provides Degree courses in Music, Pannisai, Veena, Violin, Miruthangam, Dance and Art & Design. A separate Department of Political Science and Sociology was established from July 1998. These two disciplines were managed by the Dept. of Economics until the separation. The unit of Cultural Studies now functions as Dept. of Christian Civilization and Islamic Civilization. An English Unit for teaching Basic English was also established. The faculty of Arts accommodates the majority of students who enter the University and offers a full range of Social Science and Humanities Degree programs as well as Fine Arts Education, all with a distinctive Regional and Cultural focus. Now with more than hundreds academics dedicated to teaching and research in these fields, it has grown to become one of the leading Faculty of its kind. At present the Faculty has within its fold 16 academic departments and provides General Degree & Special Degree courses in 28 Principle Subjects. The Faculty of Arts has introduced new course structure named Credit Valued Semester System from the Academic Year 2003/2004. The Faculty introduced number of new disciplines such as Psychology, Planning, Anthropology, Archaeology, Home Economics and Art & Design during the last six years of period to cater the needs of region and employment opportunity. The Department of Law was established in May, 2005 under Faculty of Arts. Most of the departments are engaged in providing facilities for post graduate research- M.Phil and Ph.D.

The Faculty has started a link programme with the University of Uppsala, Sweden. A few staff has utilized and benefited by this programme. Media Resource Training Centre (MRTC) established in collaboration with UNESCO and Royal Denmark Government is now conducting its academic programs under the direction of Faculty of Arts. There is an Academic forum in the Faculty which are engaged in conducting seminars and publishing seminar papers. Further the Faculty publishes " South Asian Journal of Sri Lanka " in English, " Cinthanai" in Tamil to encourage research and publication of the staff.