Confucius Institute (CI) was founded in 2006. at that time Prof. Kulathilaka Kumarasinghe was the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. The University of Kelaniya (UOK) signed a memorandum of understanding with Yunnan National University, P.R. China on the 15th of November 2006. There, Prof. M.J.S Wijeratne was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, and Prof. Kulathilaka Kumarasinghe as the Sri Lankan Director of the Confucius Institute has served for about 05 years. In 2007, Ms. Mali, in 2008, Prof. Zhang Xiong, and in 2009, Mr. Yang Charong served as the Chinese side Director.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Kelaniya has newly signed a memorandum of understanding with Chongqing Normal University (CNU) in 2011. At that time Prof. Sarath Amunugama was the Vice-Chancellor of the UOK and Dr. Nedalagamuwe Dhammadinna thero was the Sri Lankan Co-Director of the CI in 2011 and Prof. Lakshman Seneviratne who served as the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities from 2012 to 2014 and he also served as the Director of the Sri Lanka side of the institute. In 2012, Professor Hou Wanchun served as the Director of the Chinese side.
From the year 2015 to the year 2017, Prof. Nedalagamuwe Dhammadinna thero served as the Sri Lankan side Co-Director, and Prof. Huang Jie served as the Chinese side Director. Prof. Sunanda Maddumabandara was working as the Vice Chancellor of the UOK at that time. From the year 2017 to the year 2020, Dr. Kumari Priyanka Jayasuriya served as the Co-Director of the Sri Lankan side, and Prof. Wang Wangxia and the Associate prof. Wang Jun served as the Co-Directors of the Chinese side.
Also, since 17th of May 2020, Dr. Jani Samarakoon has served as the Sri Lankan side Co-Director and Associate prof. Wang Jun served as the Chinese side Co-Director. Since 2020, Prof. Nilanthi de Silva was serving as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kelaniya, and Dr. Sudath Senarath was serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.
Dr. Jani Samarakoon is currently serving as the Co-Director of the Sri Lankan side and Dr. Wu Hongyuan serving as the Co-Director of the Chinese side.