1. What are some of the unique challenges of running a university that has three separate campuses?

1. Forging a common direction and vision attentive to Regional needs while ensuring that each of the 3 campuses can also pursue goals and opportunities unique to the country in which they are located.
   I believe that no one campus has sufficient human and material resources to create an internationally competitive University. Collaboration between the three campuses holds the promise of enhanced quality, less duplication, greater efficiency and effectiveness.



2. The costs (and inconvenience) of travel between the three campuses and of telecommunications and Internet connectivity are unacceptably high. Greater collaboration between Caribbean airlines and implementation of the Caribbean Knowledge Learning Network (which promises much lower costs for Internet connectivity for educational programmes) will go a long way to reducing those costs.

2. How do you view your role as Vice Chancellor in a multi-campus university?

My first major goal is to forge an integrated team of University constituents (administrators, academic and non-academic staff, students and alumni) around a common vision, mission, goals and Strategic Plan. We must collaborate to build an internationally competitive university that will bring measurable value to the Caribbean people. We must commit ourselves to working together to deliver high quality undergraduate and graduate programmes, to conduct cutting-edge research focused primarily on Caribbean problems, and to make the UWI a centre of regional intellectual discourse and expertise for our societies.

A second major role is to enhance the linkage of the University with Caribbean governments, businesses and other stakeholders. We must foster on-going dialogue with our stakeholders always exploring what are their needs and fashioning programmes to meet those needs.

3. What are some of the special projects you have initiated and how have they progressed so far?

There are four (4) general directions in which I would like to go:

1. To strengthen the value the University provides its stakeholders by enhancing its educational programmes and the operations that support those programmes
   There are some areas that have required urgent attention and to address those, I have initiated the following projects:
   • Formation of a working group to improve and expand data collection, collation and analysis. This will ensure management decisions are based on more systemically collected information.
   • Formation of a Task Force to conduct a major review of the University Examination System. That Task Force has provided a comprehensive report to University authorities and it has now been charged to work with relevant department to implement recommended changes.
   • Formed a Task Force to conduct a major review of our Graduate Programmes with an intention to undertake major changes, if necessary, to improve quality, research productivity, and financing.


2. To Enhance the Value the UWI brings to the 12 contributing countries without campuses
   The provision of more educational services of enhanced quality to these countries is a vitally important initiative of mine. In each of the 12 countries (St. Lucia was the first), we are conducting strategic meetings with relevant government, business, local community college and other civic leaders to:
   • Review the human resource needs of the country.
   • Discuss the role of local post secondary institutions and UWI in meeting those needs.
   • Construct a plan by which UWI can assist in meeting identified human resource needs (and encouraging government to link with the local colleges or universities to fashion plans to meet needs that UWI cannot meet).
   • Identifying sources of funding for infrastructure and other resource expansion to enable UWI to meet those increased educational needs.


3. To Enhance the Value UWI brings to the Caribbean
   Our University is already collaborating with stakeholders in many countries on a variety of programmes and projects relevant to Caribbean Development. There are two particular areas of vulnerability that I believe our Region must address urgently, if we are to sustain our development, and where I believe UWI can provide more value: Rising Crime and threats to National Security and Susceptibility to destruction by the forces of nature.
   
   To respond to this, I have drawn together academics from all three campuses to create an Institute for Crime and Criminal Justice (this is being created in collaboration with the CARICOM Security Task Force) and a Regional Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. Proposals are being written for these Centres with initial funding from UNDP.
   
   I believe that the University can also contribute more to expansion of the economy in the region, and to this end, I am proposing growth and increased collaboration of our University’s research efforts in Biotechnology, Computer Science, and Alternative Energy.



4. Enhancement and Diversification of Funding for the University
   Our University does not have sufficient resources to meet our needs for expansion and research productivity. While we are grateful to Caribbean governments for the support they have provided, we must expand our efforts to generate more non-governmental support. To this end, I have started a number of initiatives.
   • Creation of an Institutional Advancement Division that includes an Alumni Office and Marketing Office to generate more philanthropic gifts primarily from sources outside the region (our three (3) main campuses have their own Development Offices and they have had reasonable success in fund raising in their own countries). This new unit will pay particular attention to building relationships with our alumni and other individuals in North America and Europe.
   • Creation of a UWI Consulting Company which will be expected not only to generate revenue but will allow governments and other regional institutions to utilize Caribbean expertise for Caribbean problems, as opposed to our current status of having to rely primarily on international experts.
   • Advocacy for the creation of “Caribbean Competitiveness and Development Fund”, which will enable access of researchers to more funding on a competitive basis. We hope this fund can be created by collaboration of Governments, Businesses, and Institutional Donor Agency in the Region.
   • Formation of a Capital Development Task Force comprising leading bankers and financiers in the Region to advise and assist the University in accessing non-governmental financing for infrastructural development of our campuses. The Task Force has had an initial meeting and we expect a second meeting at which we hope to start reviewing concrete recommendations.

4. Do you plan on continuing your research as a rheumatologist? Is that possible given your current responsibilities?

My research career was based largely on bench (basic) research and to a lesser degree research with patients. When I decided to become Vice Chancellor, I had to make a deliberate decision to end most of the research I did, because I knew that I would not have the time for that kind of research, nor access to the sophisticated equipment necessary for that work. Happily, my major colleague of several years, Professor Silvia Pierangeli is still pursuing the area of research which I helped to pioneer 20 years ago and my expectation is that we shall continue to make advances that will help affected patients.

Presently, my work as Vice Chancellor demands my full attention and I welcome this moment in my life to contribute in some way to a part of the world that means so much to me.

5. How happy are you with the level and quality of research produced by the UWI?

I do not believe I am exaggerating when I say that the University of West Indies, as a whole, produces more basic and applied research publications and other forms of scholarship than any other institution in the Caribbean.

However, we must also ask whether an institution of our size and with our resources can be more competitive in the international arena. In areas such as the social sciences, humanities, and education, I believe we have done well. In the basic and applied sciences, medicine and health, engineering, agriculture and law, I believe we can do more.

Our major hindrance to research excellence is twofold: lack of funding and lack of a large enough cadre of full time research graduate students (which is related, too, to a lack of sufficient funds).

Somehow we must access more funding support for research from our Governments, Businesses and International Donor Agencies. Collaboration with other universities in North America and Europe would be one route to increase our access to funding and expand what we do. If our stakeholders do not enhance funding for research, our ability to develop as a Region will be seriously compromised.

6. What do you think can make a spectacular difference in the realm of research at UWI?

More Funding for Research! I spoke earlier of efforts we are making to advocate for the creation of a “Competitiveness and Development Fund” for which researchers from any institution in the Caribbean can compete. This Fund will enable the best researchers (whether from UWI or elsewhere) to get sufficient resources to conduct competitive research in more stable work circumstances.

More funding support is also vitally needed to support full time, research graduate students to work with some of our more talented researchers.

Finally, additional funds are necessary to recruit some top-flight researchers to the Caribbean in areas that will benefit our growth eg. Computer Science, Economics, Education, Crime and Security, to name a few.

7. How well equipped are UWI graduates to compete for jobs and positions against graduates from international universities?

I believe that one of the strengths of UWI has been the depth and breadth of knowledge of our graduates in their chosen discipline. In my experience, the knowledge base of UWI students in their discipline is superior to that of most graduates from most North American institutions in the same discipline. UWI graduates usually have no difficulty getting into teaching postgraduate programmes in the world and many have been recipients of prestigious international scholarships and fellowships over the years. Our major problem is that our graduates do not “sell themselves” as well as those of North American (particularly USA) institutions. Recently, UWI conducted a poll of employers in our region asking them about the quality of our graduates and how they compared with graduates of International Universities. Based on the findings of that poll, our campuses have initiated efforts to improve the oral and written communication skills of our students, their breadth of knowledge beyond their subject discipline, their ability to think analytically and be problem solvers. The effects of these initiatives may take a few years to see, but it is important that we know where “the gaps” are and that we enhance our work with all our academic staff to ensure that they can impart more effectively some of these additional skills to our students.

8. Do you think that the Caribbean region is capable of holding onto the majority of its university graduates?

The emigration of our graduates to North America and to a lesser extent to Europe is very troubling. Students go to places where they will get jobs, opportunities for personal and professional growth, and high salaries. If we are to retain our graduates, we have got to expand our economic productivity and opportunities for our graduating students. But I also believe that our students have to be provided learning experiences that will make them not just “employees” but “employers”. They must be part of the business expansion of the Caribbean - entrepreneurs, innovators, people able to “see and enact” new ventures, people able to seize new opportunities. It is only in this way that we can create the conditions and circumstances to expand our economic productivity and generate the sort of opportunities that will retain our graduates.

9. What lessons do you think UWI can learn from other international universities?

I believe that Universities in the USA lead the world today in many areas of academic achievement (in saying so, one should recognize however that there are thousands of universities, colleges and other post secondary institutions in the USA and only a small number in that country has reached the “world class” status). I do not believe that the education the USA and other countries offer is necessarily superior to UWI, but their students have broader educational exposure, and are often more adept in communication (primarily oral) skills. For some of the really good universities in North America, the ability to “problem solve” and think “outside the box” are particularly emphasised. These are all areas in which we can enhance what we do at the undergraduate level and to UWI’s credit, many departments have taken initial steps to do this.

Where we fall short of the most competitive Universities in the USA is in the breadth and depth of our graduate and research programmes. The ranking of a University is primarily based on its research productivity, and that in turn, depends both on the size and quality of their academic staff and research graduate students, and the funds available to conduct research. We have to do better in expanding our research productivity and research graduate programmes, but identifying more funding remains a critical requirement.

10. What do you believe are UWI core competencies and key strengths?

1. Provision of a solid high quality educational experience for its undergraduate students.



2. Good opportunities for Masters’ and Continuing Education degree programmes for postgraduates, particularly working adults.



3. The best source of scholarship and expertise about the Caribbean in several areas, for example, the humanities and the arts, education, history and other social sciences, medicine, nursing, many areas of engineering, the applied sciences (environment, natural products research, geography, biotechnology etc).



4. A record of achievement in scholarly research that is the best in the Caribbean.



5. A record of graduates who have become leaders and high achievers in every sector of Caribbean life (this is one the most persuasive testimonies to the strength of a UWI education. In terms of contribution of leaders, senior and middle managers to their countries, UWI matches the achievements of some of the great universities in the world today).

11. What areas of the University of the West Indies do you believe are most in need of attention as UWI seeks to build a sustainable future?

1. Greater integration of its component parts into a more united and effective team pursuing a common vision, goals and objectives.



2. Enhancement of Educational Programmes that address specific areas of need in the Region.



3. Expansion of the value the University provides in education and in provision of expertise to countries without campuses (“UWI-12” Countries).



4. Expansion of research and development programmes relevant to Caribbean growth and development.



5. Expanded implementation of productivity and accountability measures.



6. Enhancement of the efficiency and effectiveness of some areas of management and operations.

12. You have identified the UWI-12 as being in need of special attention, what are some of the things that UWI is doing to extend regional reach and expand regional access?

Perhaps our first step has been to stop using the term “Non-Campus Countries” to describe these important stakeholders. We are in the process of identifying a more positive designation and for the time being, use the term “UWI-12”.

Secondly, I believe the UWI community must enhance its awareness of its responsibility to provide quality services to these countries (educational, research and development, expertise and advisory services). To this end, the leadership of all three (3) campuses has taken some important initial steps. These include, recruitment drives for students from the Eastern Caribbean and provision of more scholarships. Cave Hill has announced 40 scholarships per year for students from the Eastern Caribbean, Mona has also announced an intention to provide 20 scholarships, and I expect St. Augustine will do the same in the near future. We are also engaged in restructuring and improving the distance education service we provide to those countries.

Most importantly, I believe we must re-visit and re-define our role in the UWI-12 Countries. We must collaborate more with local community colleges to expand and enhance provision of post secondary education services. To this end, we are in the process of conducting Country Consultation meetings in each of those countries. At these meetings with stakeholders - government, business, community college(s), civic leaders - we hope to better define the country’s human resource needs and to determine how the country’s stakeholders and UWI can meet better defined human resource needs.

Finally, we want to utilize every possible opportunity to lend our expertise to the UWI-12. For example, following the destruction of Grenada by Hurricane Ivan, I formed a Vice Chancellor’s Hurricane Task Force comprising several of our academic staff members, in many disciplines, who provided time and expertise to the recovery effort. My hope is that our plans to form a UWI Consulting Company will enable a systemic method of providing expertise to those countries.

13. Is there anything that you would like to add as we close this interview?

It has been a privilege to work in the past year with many talented staff members, students and alumni of UWI and to link with committed government, business and civic leaders within the Caribbean Community - including countries such as Guyana and Suriname. I hope to expand and deepen our University’s relationship with the communities we serve to ensure that UWI is first in providing high quality educational services to Caribbean students at the undergraduate and graduate levels; first in research and provision of new knowledge relevant to our region; and the port of first call for Caribbean governments and businesses seeking advice and expertise in areas relevant to Caribbean development.