UWI continues regional expansion
Eighty-eight acre land grant for new University of the West Indies Campus in Grenada.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Monday, August 6, 2012 – Despite its struggles to get regional governments to remain current with their financial commitments, the University of the West Indies (UWI) is continuing its regional expansion.
Even as new overseas tertiary educational institutions continue to pop up throughout the Caribbean challenging the UWI, the regional university is seeking to establish a stronger presence in the eastern Caribbean with the erection of a new campus.
Vice Chancellor of the UWI Professor Nigel Harris and Prime Minister of Grenada Tillman Thomas recently signed documents formalizing the grant of just over 88 acres of land to the university for the campus.
Facilities planned for the new site will be managed by the UWI’s Open Campus, which oversees the distance learning initiatives of the university.
The recently launched Open Campus is a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean.
In his statement at the signing ceremony, Prime Minister Thomas said the campus would be a “significant investment in the future of the people of Grenada,” and one which makes education accessible to “all of our citizens.”
Professor Harris thanked the Grenadian Government and underscored the UWI’s commitment to expand its outreach and bring the university to students “who could not easily come to us”.
It is envisioned that the new facilities in Hope, St. Andrews (in the north-eastern section of the island) will be a multi-purpose site encompassing teaching and learning facilities, conference and event facilities, as well as an agricultural research station. Clearing and construction is expected to begin in the next few months.
The specific plans for the development of the Grenada site are being discussed by the Office of the Vice Chancellor in collaboration with the Senior Management of the Open Campus, led by Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal of the Open Campus, Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald and Head of the Grenada site, Dr Curtis Jacobs.
“This land grant is the culmination of more than six years of negotiations over the life of the previous and present Governments of Grenada. It is in keeping with the recommendations of the 2005 UWI Chancellor’s Report on Governance to have a ‘university campus presence’ in each of the UWI-12 countries and marks the beginning of a new era in the relationship between The UWI and the Government of Grenada in particular, and the UWI-12 countries in general,” said Dr Jacobs.
Even as it continues to invest in the expansion of its presence across the Caribbean islands, The UWI emphasizes its continuing interest in pursuing more formal links and partnerships with community colleges and national universities in the English speaking Caribbean in the interest of widening access to higher education and better serving the region.
This significant endowment to the UWI adds to recent gifts of land by other Caribbean governments such as the governments of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica.
The UWI has an enrolment of 40,000 students spread over main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)