[1][3] In 2018, the parliament of Sri Lanka passed a special provisions act to abolish SAITM Medical faculty and to transfer the students to General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.

[15] The UGC, in 2013, granted SAITM a degree awarding status despite protests from the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) and the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA).

Health minister Rajitha Senaratne also echoed similar sentiment claiming that proper guidelines will be established to administer SAITM which will also be applicable to future international universities that have expressed willingness to expand into Sri Lanka.

[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] In early February 2017, two men travelling on a motor bike wearing full-face helmets opened fire at the car of SAITM's Director of Medical Education Sameera Senaratne [38] who was at the wheel at the time of the incident, at Malabe.

Subsequent inquiries raised suspicion that the shooting was staged by Senaratne and a politician known to him, to depict the anti-SAITM protests brewing in the country at the time in an unfavourable light.

A later Police investigation pointed to the shooting could have been staged by Senaratne himself [39][40][41] Nandalal Gunaratne is listed as a 'Consultant Urologist' and 'Senior Lecturer in Surgery',[42] and as the 'Head of Clinical Sciences at SAITM'.

[42] Gunaratne has been barred from the practice of surgery in Australia, following investigation into his competence in 'the most basic of operations' as reported in the Australian press [43][44] Ananda Samarasekara is SAITM's Professor and Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine.

[45] Samarasekara had an arrest warrant issued by the CID in October 2017 on charges of concealing evidence and misplacement of body parts in the alleged murder of Wasim Thajudeen.