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UWi 60th Anniversary

UWI 60th Anniversary

by Karel McIntosh

Caribbean intellectualism started long before the 1940s. However, when The University of the West Indies (UWI) was established in 1948, the region gained an institution that would become a symbol of progress, not just in the academic arena, but also in the social, economic, political and technological development of the English-speaking Caribbean. Known then as the University College of the West Indies (UCWI), having been established by Royal Charter, as a college of the University of London, UWI became an independent institution in 1962, taking on its current name.

In 2008, UWI will celebrate 60 years as a university. The celebration will last from January 1 to December 31, and with good reason, because there is much to commemorate. One of only two regional universities worldwide, it serves 15 English-speaking islands at its physical campuses in Barbados (Cave Hill), Jamaica (Mona), and Trinidad (St. Augustine), and centres, collectively known as the UWI-12. These are located in Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, respectively. UWI also serves the Caribbean’s under-served populations in other countries through its continuing studies and distance education programmes. It is the region’s premier university.

“2008 will be a special year, one in which we will bring together many people who have shared and given so much to our university, the region it serves, and the rest of the world,” says Prof. E. Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of The UWI, and Chairman of the 60th Anniversary Steering Committee. “At 60, there is much about which we can be proud, and in looking to the future we are setting the stage to ensure the resilience of our university. This celebration will involve all of our stakeholders— Caribbean government leaders and communities, alumni, current students, and the Diaspora.”

Rhodes scholars, Nobel Laureates, prime ministers, heads of states (Governors General and Presidents), government ministers, and leaders in the business, judiciary, medicine, law, engineering, nursing, religion, communications and media sectors are some of the thousands who call UWI their alma mater. With over 75,000 graduates, across five continents, UWI has not only facilitated world-class scholarship, it has also helped to nurture the skills, knowledge, intellectualism, and dynamism that has propelled regional development, and advanced research on the Caribbean and its issues, as well as those of international importance.

Aptly reflecting these contributions, “Global Impact, Caribbean Reach” is the celebration theme of UWI’s Anniversary. Events span the campus countries of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad, the UWI-12 territories, and the Caribbean Diasporas in the United States of America (USA), Canada and the United Kingdom (UK). Connecting staff, alumni, students, and people, from all walks of life, who have been associated with the University’s development over the last six decades, this Pan-Caribbean celebration is symbolic of what UWI Caribbean integration.

The 60th Anniversary Steering Committee includes representatives from across the UWI community, and a 60th Anniversary Celebrations Secretariat has been set up in the Office of the Vice Chancellor at the Mona Campus in Jamaica to oversee the planning. Several local organising committees and other sub-committees—such as Marketing & Communications, Sponsorship & Fundraising, and Alumni & Friends—have also been formed in the various UWI territories, and are working collaboratively to organise a distinguished series of events and projects for 2008.

In addition to the national celebrations being planned by the local organising committees and sub-committees, the University will host signature, 60th Anniversary events. Signalling the official launch of the anniversary celebrations across the region, January 7, 2008 will be declared UWI Day in the campus countries and the UWI-12. Simultaneous media launches and other activities aimed at raising awareness across the region will be held that day. The launch date holds special significance to UWI, as on January 7, 1947, the first governing body of the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) assembled for its first meeting in the house of the British Council in Jamaica. It was at this first meeting that the decision was taken that lands at Mona, Jamaica were most suitable for establishing the first campus of The University of the West Indies.

Following the proclamation of UWI Day, Barbados’ Cave Hill Campus will host the Opening Ceremony of the 60th Anniversary Celebrations—an interfaith service at St. Mary’s Church, Bridgetown—on January 12. A gala concert will be held the following day, featuring the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Chorus, and Voices of Montserrat, among other groups.

From July 12 to 19, Jamaica’s Mona Campus will host a special Convocation Week for a grand Gathering of Graduates. Coinciding with this event will be the ninth reunion and conference of the Medical Alumni Association. The Medical Faculty was the first faculty of The University of the West Indies. Engineering, Law and Agriculture alumni will also host reunions throughout the year at the other campuses—St. Augustine and Cave Hill. Additionally, each UWI Alumni Association (UWIAA) Chapter in the Caribbean, USA, Canada and the UK is planning signature fund-raising events.

In line with UWI’s aim to promote development through education, the UWI-12 territories will be planning several events, including a Distinguished Lecture series commencing in Dominica, and continuing successively throughout the UWI-12. There will also be several broadcasted panel discourses featuring Resident Tutors. The series is intended to weave a powerful collage of Caribbean intelligence together with a primary focus on the UWI’s record in the “12” territories. All UWI-12 territories—which will eventually be transformed into a fourth, virtual campus called the Open Campus—are also organising individual banquets, intended to bring the respective communities and UWI alumni in each territory closer to the institution.

Closing the yearlong celebrations, Trinidad’s St. Augustine Campus will host a Gala Dinner on December 12. This red carpet affair will be set against the backdrop of one of the country’s most exclusive hotels, and will see some of the University’s most outstanding alumni, regional dignitaries, and politicians—among other stakeholders—on the guest list. A prominent, UWI alum will host each banquet table, as the University seeks to reconnect and solidify its relationships.

Proceeds from all Anniversary initiatives will support the Regional Endowment Fund, which will be launched this year. The fund will facilitate infrastructural projects such as a Commuting Students’ Facility for students at Mona, a new Hall of Residence to accommodate 800-1,000 students at St. Augustine, an Interfaith Chapel at Cave Hill, a Cultural Studies Institute for the UWI-12 sites, a Commuting/ Part-time Students’ facility with day care services at Cave Hill, a Sports Complex at Mona, and a Reading Diagnostic Literacy Project in the UWI-12.

Already, corporate citizens have agreed to partner with UWI to commemorate this historical moment. The Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) has dedicated the cover of its 2008 telephone directory to UWI’s 60th Anniversary celebrations. Additionally, the Trinidad and Tobago Postal Corporation (TTPost) is collaborating with the UWI St. Augustine Campus on a commemorative stamp collection. Similar stamp collections are being created across the UWI-12 countries as well, including Dominica, Belize and Montserrat.

Turning 60 will certainly be a special moment in the history of The University of the West Indies, and the Caribbean at large.

“When I came to UWI, it was clear to me that the Grenadines also provided an excellent opportunity for students to learn about small islands issues in a compact area,” said Professor Mahon. “I therefore began to pursue the development of the project with stakeholders including both Governments and NGOs. I was fortunate to find a donor who was like-minded and saw the value of taking this long-term approach.”


The donor, The Lighthouse Foundation, based in Germany, agreed to fund the first phase of this project which involved scoping and planning. When it was completed, the Foundation consented to fund the implementation of the project over a five-year period, from November 2003 through December 2008.


The Sustainable Grenadines project addresses a wide range of activities from enabling organisation for NGOs through training to providing opportunities for learning by doing. An overarching focus has been providing access to information and creating well-informed civil stakeholders to provide continued impetus to the project. The project has embraced its goals in a variety of ways: by providing for stakeholder identification and analysis of capacity; participatory planning with stakeholders to determine needs and directions; institutional assessment of NGOs; training to meet needs; planning workshops in specific areas to determine directions for future work; attachments to other organisations that can provide hands-on experience and exposure; funding and implementation support for mini-projects so that NGOs can learn how to do projects; assistance with preparing proposals; obtaining funding and implementing projects; networking and communication among people so that they can learn from and support each other.


Professor Mahon appears uniquely suited to undertake the challenges of managing a team to achieve these results. Long committed to the preservation and successful management of fisheries in the Caribbean, Professor Mahon in 1974 undertook postgraduate studies at University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. After graduating with his PhD in 1981, he worked as a Fisheries Scientist with the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans on Canada’s east coast for several years before returning to the Caribbean in 1986 to serve with the United Nations FAO in the eastern Caribbean. When CARICOM started its fisheries resource assessment and management project in 1990 he became the Chief Scientist. In these job situations and subsequently as a self-employed consultant, he saw first hand that the struggle for rational use of marine resources was mainly about managing the people, not the fish. His attention shifted steadily from the science of fisheries to the institutional arrangements for managing them at local, national and regional levels, and has produced a wide-ranging body of scholarship reflecting these research interests.


For the Sustainable Grenadines project, he noted, there is an overarching theme of creating a civil society architecture that supports the continued preservation and development of terrestrial and marine resources.


“In general, there is a strong focus on the marine environment and livelihoods derived from the sea,” he explained. “However, in small islands, the land and sea are very closely linked and there is the need to consider them both together. The Grenadines exhibit and exemplify most of the sustainable development problems that are typical of small islands.”


So far, these problems are being progressively addressed through the efforts of the Sustainable Grenadines project and promise to produce a cutting-edge model that can be successfully applied in other areas around the region. Professor Mahon, who in his long and brightly burnished career has undertaken numerous projects, is excited about the prospects for this one.


“This has been a very rewarding project,” he noted with a smile, “as one gets to work with a whole range of dedicated and inspiring people. In terms of impact, a project of this type has a long-term orientation, as it is trying to change the way that systems work and people operate. Even though OECS Governments have recognized the important role of civil society in the St. George’s Declaration, it takes a long time for them to actually include civil society as partners in their plans and programmes.”