Source : NEWSDAY
Vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Sir Hilary Beckles wants the financial reliance model of the university to change, so there is less dependency on the public. He was speaking at the UWI’s Meeting of University Council open session which was streamed on UWI-TV, UWI-TV’s Facebook page and UWI-TV’s channels on Flow on Wednesday.
During his presentation at the university’s meeting of the council, he said, “We believe that it is possible in the next five years to turn around the financial funding model of this university so that our reliance upon the public revenue will be significantly diminished, while the university itself, in its own entrepreneurial activity, would generate far more resources than it has ever done in the past.”
He explained what an entrepreneurial university would look like and how it works, saying the idea is to generate entrepreneurial interest and activity in the market economy which will yield revenue.
He said the concern right now is the Caribbean’s macroeconomic situation.
“We are hoping and wishing to contribute the best we can to a Caribbean economy that will find in the post-covid19 years more attractive levels of economic development and growth. This is what we are committed to.”
Beckles said in the midst of the covid19 pandemic and restrictions, the management and the leaders of the university did not step down, but rather, looked at the future of the university and pushed on during the pandemic.
With that in mind, he said, UWI was able to demonstrate at several levels how it had built out access to higher education in the Caribbean.
“For many decades, it was argued that the university was underperforming in the sub-region of the Caribbean known as the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States). The OECS and the states found themselves with the lowest enrolment in higher education among young people in the region.”
He said those states were also in a financial bind, as their economy was experiencing the most “anaemic” growth. Seeing this, UWI decided to institute the UWI Five Islands Campus in Antigua and Barbuda.
Beckles also thanked the government of Antigua and Barbuda for investing in the campus.
“At the end of this initial conversation, where the government of Antigua and Barbuda was able to secure a US$80 million loan on very concessionary terms from the Saudi Development Fund.”
The agreement was signed on January 17 and Beckles said Denzel Williams, principal and pro-vice chancellor, has already rolled out a master plan for the expansion of the campus featuring all the modern facilities a university should have. He added that the UWI Five Islands Campus will emerge as a state-of-the-art part of the UWI family.
“This is an excellent example of the university pushing access beyond traditional boundaries and frontiers.”
Beckles said the Caribbean faces challenges such as climate change, disaster mitigation and management, covid19 and non-communicable diseases, crime and security, re-energising Caribbean economic growth and sustainable development goals advocacy. But UWI, he said, has been working tirelessly to bring awareness and to protect lives.
“This is how we have positioned the university. We took the strategic decision that the university must be on the vanguard and the frontier of all of these issues. Never let it be said that the voice of the UWI has not been heard on any major issue facing our people. This is the university that we have tried to create.”
He said UWI has not finished dealing with issues facing the Caribbean. This time he was addressing a situation in the Virgin Islands, where the British government tried to reaffirm direct control over the Caribbean territory.
“We were able to stand up and say, ‘No, we are not supportive of strategies to re-establish direct colonial control of Caribbean countries.’ In fact, our university is committed to the decolonisation of the Caribbean. We are disturbed that there are still colonies in the Caribbean and that the process of decolonisation and indigenous nation-building is not yet complete and the Caribbean remains one of those parts of the world that can still be classified as a colonised place. The UWI finds this offensive.”
He said the UWI will do its best to continue fighting for this cause, especially with TT and Jamaica already celebrating 60 years of independence.
As for climate change, he said UWI was able to get its voice heard in the centre of global conversations, in the UN and beyond.
“We were able to establish the global institute for climate-smart and resilient development. We were able to do this with international support and funding because we were able to recognise that the UWI is one of the few universities with decades of serious detailed analysis and publishing on matters relevant to climate change.”
Beckles said there is 40 years of research on this matter from UWI.
As for disaster mitigation and management, the UWI’s Seismic Research Unit was able to give the Prime Minister of the St Vincent and the Grenadines timely scientific information before the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano which saved lives.
Beckles said UWI already had a covid19 task force before TT’s first recorded covid19 case to take a deeper look at the arrival of the virus in the region.
“At the end of January, we were ready. We had mobilised our scientific community to begin public education to work with the ministries of health, various governments and Caricom. We had already mobilised the management of the necessary information with respect to this virus.”
Beckles said though it was a dark time, it was the “finest hour” for UWI, since its team saved so many lives once again.