He would later serve as the Secretary of the Royal College Union. Jayewardene entered the University College, Colombo in 1926 pursuing the Advocate's course, reading English, Latin, Logic and Economics for two years, after which he entered Ceylon Law College in 1928. He formed the College Union based on that of the Oxford Union. There he won the Hector Jayewardene Gold Medal and the Walter Pereira Prize in 1929. During this time he worked as his father's Private Secretary, while latter served as a Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Ceylon and in July 1929, he joined three others in forming a dining club they called the "The Honorable Society of Pushcannons", which was later renamed as the "Priya Sangamaya". In 1931, he passed his advocates exams, starting his practice in the unofficial bar, for a brief period. Jayewardene was actracted to national politics in his student years and developed strong nationalist views. He converted from Anglicanism to Buddhism and adopted the national dress as his formal attire. Jayewardene did not practice law for long. In 1943 he gave up his legal career to become an activist in the Ceylon National Congress (CNC), which provided the organizational platform for Ceylon's nationalist movement (the island was officially renamed Sri Lanka in 1972). He became its Joint Secretary in 1939 and in 1940 he was elected to the Colombo Municipal Council from the New Bazaar Ward. He was elected to the colonial legislature, the State Council in 1943 by winning the Kelaniya by-election. His victory is credited to his use of an anti-Christian campaign against his opponent, the nationalist E.W.Perera. During World War II, Jayewardene, along with other nationalists, contacted the Japanese and discussed a rebellion to drive the British from the island. In 1944, Jayewardene moved a motion in the State Council that Sinhala alone should replace English as the official language. After joining the United National Party on its formation in 1946 as a founder member, he was reelected from the Kelaniya electorate in the 1st parliamentary election and was appointed by D. S. Senanayake as the Minister of Finance in the island's first Cabinet in 1947. Initiating post-independence reforms, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Central Bank of Ceylon under the guidance of the American economist John Exter. In 1951 Jayewardene was a member of the committee to select a National Anthem for Sri Lanka headed by Sir Edwin Wijeyeratne.