The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences comprises nine academic departments; Economics, English Language Teaching, English and Linguistics, Geography, History and Archaeology, Pali and Buddhist Studies, Public Policy, Sinhala, and Sociology; an Information Technology Unit to cater for IT-related academic courses technical needs of the faculty; and two centres, Modern Languages and Civilizations and Conflict Studies to conduct academic courses in the disciplines concerned.

Equipped with a 120-member academic staff, of which about 90% have postgraduate qualifications while around 40% are PhD qualified, and assisted by a considerable non-academic staff classified as academic support, administrative, and minor, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences remains the largest faculty of the University of Ruhuna, in terms of student and staff population.

In 2020, the faculty revised its curricular in line with the Sri Lanka Qualifications Framework and introduced altogether 12 Bachelor of Arts Honors undergraduate degree programmes, while continuing with the current ongoing degree programmes - Bachelor of Arts (General and Special) for the internal students and Bachelor of Arts (General) for the external students. It also contributes to the Faculty of Graduate Studies to conduct the postgraduate degree programmes - Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and Doctor of Philosophy in a variety of disciplines in the fields of the humanities and social sciences.

The outreach programmes of the faculty include diploma and certificate courses in a wide range of disciplines focused on the socio-economic development of the land and nation of Sri Lanka. With the opening of novel academic and research domains, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences has been able to attract a large number of students from all the provinces of Sri Lanka.

The international collaborative programmes of the faculty include research and educational exchanges with Agder University and Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Norway, Tribhuvan University in Nepal, University of Hamburg in Germany and the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology in Pakistan which add to the intellectual expertise of the faculty.

The faculty conceives education as a positive force that lays a strong foundation in the creation of good citizenship, mutual respect, democratic values and tolerance of diverse opinions.

With all its strengths, I sincerely believe and wish that the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Ruhuna would succeed as a premier centre of academic and scientific excellence of national and international accreditation.