Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Our Vision

The CETL's vision is to promote the UWI as the vanguard for excellence in tertiary level teaching, learning and research.

Our Mission

The mission of the CETL is to enhance teaching effectiveness and student learning at UWI, St. Augustine and tertiary institutions generally; and to conduct research in support of quality teaching and learning at the tertiary level locally and throughout the region.

The work of the CETL aims to enhance the quality of teaching of the University’s lecturers, teaching assistants and tutors. The Centre engages in a range of professional development activities that seek to provide teaching staff with the requisite pedagogical skills to improve the learning that takes place in their classrooms, as well as strategies for gaining knowledge about trends and developments in learning and teaching in higher education. The Centre has conducted hundreds of interactive training workshops, and facilitated numerous workshops by foreign experts in the field of higher education.

Recognising the need for research to be done on a range of aspects of teaching and learning, the CETL launched the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Programme in 2007 with the expectation of fostering a research approach to improving teaching and learning practices on the campus. This initiative has been growing from strength to strength. 2010 saw the inauguration of the Centre's peer reviewed journal, the Caribbean Teaching Scholar. 

Another pioneering initiative of the CETL is its collaboration with corporate sponsor Guardian Life of the Caribbean Limited. An award scheme to recognise and salute excellent lecturers was started in 2000 with the first of its alternating open lectures in 2001. These events were so successful that Guardian Life of the Caribbean Limited, of its own volition, decided to expand them to the Cave Hill and Mona Campuses.

The CETL team was awarded the prestigious Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence 2003 in the area of Service to the University Community. For more details on the Centre, we invite you to peruse our website.