March 2025 : 5 Moir Students Offered Places at Oxford & Cambridge

Five students have been offered places at Oxford and Cambridge universities to begin courses in September 2025, a record for the school in one year. At present, there are only 5 Sri Lankan undergraduates at Oxford and 9 at Cambridge, across 4 batches, so one school having 5 students offered places in one year is remarkable. Three other Moir alumni will still be at Oxford and Cambridge next year too, so there will be a total of 8 Moir students at the UK’s two top universities.

Malith Gunawardena will read Economics at Cambridge University. The Cambridge Economics course is the most prestigious in the world. Past students and faculty include John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, JK Galbraith, Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and a total of 19 Nobel Prize winners. A significant proportion of current Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors around the world are alumni; Malith hopes to join their ranks. Malith earned nine 9s in his IGCSEs and four A*s at A Level, winning the award for the Highest Mark in the World in Economics after scoring 100% on all his four papers. He has spent part of his gap year at the Junior School, embracing new opportunities and broadening his horizons. Malith impressed his interviewers with his mathematical skills, intellectual curiosity and vast general knowledge.

Raveen Akuretiyagama has been offered a place to read Engineering at St. Peter’s College, Oxford. Raveen joined in Form 1 and achieved ten 9s in his IGCSE exams in 2023 as well as prizes for scoring the Highest Mark in Sri Lanka in Computer Science and Geography. His application stood out as he had represented Sri Lanka in both the International Junior Science Olympiad in Bogota in 2022, where he won a Bronze Medal, and the FIRST Global Robotics Olympiad in Athens last year, where the team of Moir students he led finished 6th out of 193 countries and brought home gold medals for Engineering Design.

Savaira Sammoon is one of two students with places to read History at Cambridge in September. She joined Moir aged two years old in 2008 and left last year as one of the senior Head Prefects. She achieved nine 9s in her IGCSEs and developed her interest in political and social issues through writing for national newspapers, editing the school newspaper and being head of the Press Corps at the Sri Lanka Model United Nations.

Sulaari Stuart earned 3 A*s in her A Levels and the award for the Highest Mark in the World in IAL History, having scored 99.5%. She impressed the fellows at Sidney Sussex College with her essay challenging conventional views of Partition by blaming Nehru rather than Jinnah. She was also President of Essay Club, which helps the school’s top students develop the skills and interests they need to impress interviewers.

Tienn Kapilasena also joined Moir when he was two years old. He spent fourteen years in the school and earned nine 9s in his IGCSEs before moving to England with his family. Tienn was appointed School Captain at Sevenoaks School there, despite being new, before being offered a place at Hertford College, Oxford to read Geography.

Offers from other universities are still coming in, with US decisions mostly coming at the start of April.  Students have already received places, however, at Stanford, Cornell and leading Liberal Arts colleges in the US.  In the UK, three students have offers from Imperial College London and eight at UCL, currently ranked the 2nd and 9th best universities in the world.

The number of Moir students who earn places at top universities reflects not only students’ outstanding academic results and the guidance they receive on university applications but also the school’s emphasis on teaching students to think for themselves and encouraging them to pursue their interests beyond the syllabus through independent reading and research.