Educated at Royal College, Colombo, Chandana Dissanayake entered the University of Colombo as an Arts Undergraduate. He graduated with an Honours Degree in English and proceeded to read for an MPhil in English at the University of Kelaniya, which he successfully gained. This was the first Degree of MPhil in English awarded in the history of the University of Kelaniya and the second in the history of all universities in Sri Lanka. The Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka awarded his PhD for his research on the ethnographic writing of Dr. R.L. Spittel, the first comprehensive academic study on this writer.

An Accredited Senior Teacher in Higher Education (ASTHE), Dissanayake currently serves the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka in Belihuloya in the capacity of Senior Lecturer, Gr.I, (English), where he was instrumental in setting up the Department of Languages and served as its Head between 1999-2002. A onetime Editor of the Sabaragamuwa University Journal, the first online university journal in Sri Lanka, Dissanayake was also the founder Secretary of the Sabaragamuwa University Teachers Association (SUTA) in 1997. He teaches literatures in English and Sociolinguistics and is in his 25th year of service at SUSL.

Dissanayake has been a resource person at a number of institutions in the university and educational sectors including University of Peradeniya, University of Colombo, University of Kelaniya, University of Ruhuna, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Quality Assurance and Accreditation Council (QAAC) UGC, and the Department of Examinations, Sri Lanka. He was an Honorary Associate of the Durham University, UK, between 2011-2014 and was a member of the Panel of Judges of the Gratiaen Prize 2016 and the State Literary Awards 2017, 2018, 2019.

Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) - Life member

Sri Lanka Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (SLACLALS) - Life Member

Discourse Analysis, Bilingualism in Sri Lanka, Ethnographic fiction, Sri Lankan Literature in English