News Releases

Corporate Donors help fund new UWI vice Chancellery Building

For Release Upon Receipt - October 29, 2012

St. Augustine


Caribbean corporate organizations are signalling their commitment to an integrated Caribbean, contributing in cash and kind to the completion of the Vice Chancellery building of The University of the West Indies (UWI).

Approximately US$1 million has already been raised through donations from companies like the Neal & Massy Group, Caribbean Cement Company, alumnus, Dr. Aleem Mohammed, Chairman of SM Jaleel & Company Limited, Trinidad & Tobago and Chas E. Ramson of Jamaica. 

The new Vice Chancellery Building – UWI Regional Headquarters (UWI-RHQ) – seat of central governance for the entire university, was officially opened at Mona, in June, by Prime Minister of Jamaica, Mrs. Portia Simpson-Miller.

The building cost US$12 million, of which US$8.25 million was provided through a Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) loan. The loan is guaranteed in equal portions by the governments of Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and includes generous repayment terms and fairly low interest rates. Apart from the loan, the CDB also gave UWI a grant of US$500,000. Though the building is completed, the University needs additional funds for the longer term aspects of the project and hopes that the private sector across the region will contribute to the fund.  

Many management offices have been relocated to the UWI-RHQ which also has a museum and archives and some of UWI’s research institutes.

Located just outside the UWI, Mona, UWI-RHQ according the Vice Chancellor, Prof. E. Nigel Harris, “is truly regional.  It’s a place which belongs to all the campuses.”

 

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences. 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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