News Releases

The UWI St. Augustine Campus Council reviews Academic Year 2011/2012

For Release Upon Receipt - March 27, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – The 2011/2012 academic year was another year of “sterling performance” for the St Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI), said the Chairman of its Campus Council, Mr. Ewart Williams.

In his review contained in the Annual Report, Mr. Williams had noted that in this transitional year, the Campus’ many accomplishments contributed further to delivering on goals set out in the 2007-2012 Strategic Plan. “One of the significant achievements during the year was the impressive growth in graduate enrolment, which for the first time outpaced enrolment at the undergraduate level,” he said. The St Augustine Campus now has a graduate enrolment of 30% of the student population, with some 20% of graduate students pursuing research degrees.

On Tuesday March 26th 2013, The UWI St. Augustine hosted its annual Campus Council meeting at the Hilton Trinidad Ballroom and Conference Centre. The Campus welcomed Vice-Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris; Council Chairman, Mr. Williams; as well as other appointed members of the Council for the presentation of the 2011/2012 Annual Report by Campus Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Clement Sankat.

In this Annual Report, The UWI takes a look back at the progress made over the last strategic planning period and looks forward to building a stronger UWI to serve the needs of the wider region. The theme is embodied in Janus, the Roman God of beginnings and transitions, and also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time.’ Whilst this is a time of new beginnings, the Campus is ever mindful of the values and traditions that have built its foundation.

Working with the Strategic Plan has helped the Campus set a solid foundation for the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, public service and community outreach, and very importantly, staff engagement.

The report gave details of the steady growth and development experienced by the Campus over the past academic year, in a drive to enhance the physical capacity of the Campus and reaching out to under-served communities. The UWI St. Augustine Campus – Penal/Debe can be considered one the biggest achievements relative to the physical capacity and will enable the University to better serve remote communities in south Trinidad. The last academic year also saw the completion of the expansion of the SALISES/Faculty of Law building on the main campus, which provides temporary space for the increased intake of Law students. The successful Bachelor’s programme in Film now has its own building on Carmody Road and the Health Economics Centre on Warner Street is now complete. The Teaching and Learning Centre, possibly the largest building on Campus, along with the Division for Facilities Management building are both completed and currently being furnished. The South Block renovation is close to completion, while the fencing of the Orange Grove lands, awarded by the Government of Trinidad & Tobago, has been done. Work is steadily progressing on the remodeling and expansion of the Senior Common Room, which together with the renovated Harnanan House, will form a small hotel called The University Inn. The overall square footage across the St. Augustine Campus is now increased by 30%, providing additional room for teaching, research, student accommodation and other services whilst preserving much of the green space, in keeping with the Master Plan.

One of the thrusts over the last academic year was to reinvigorate research across the Campus. In November 2011 a consensus building Workshop on Research Priorities was held and out of this came a new framework for national research funding allocated to the Campus by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, creating the UWI-Trinidad and Tobago Research and Development Impact Fund (RDI Fund). The RDI Fund provides grants of up to TT$2 million for multi-disciplinary projects aimed at addressing pressing societal issues in six priority thematic areas including climate change and environmental issues; crime, violence and citizen security; economic diversification and sector competitiveness; finance and entrepreneurship; public health; and technology and society: enhancing efficiency, competitiveness, social and cultural well-being.

Historically, The UWI has been synonymous with rigorous quality standards in tertiary education, the efforts made to uphold this were also reviewed at the meeting.  Notably, the University’s thrust to demonstrating our intention to ensure relevance to market needs saw the introduction of several new programmes were devised in conjunction with industry partners. On May 3, 2011, ACTT awarded the Campus institutional accreditation for seven years, the maximum period granted. This is a significant accomplishment, demonstrating that The UWI St. Augustine Campus, the first large higher education institution in Trinidad and Tobago to receive this accreditation, has met and surpassed national standards and criteria of quality assurance. Additionally, in 2012 the Academic Board approved a Campus Quality Policy to guide quality assurance in our academic and non-academic operations. The Campus has since embarked on an Institutional Effectiveness Programme (IEP) which consists of a number of initiatives: a Quality Management System, a Service Excellence Framework, and Campus-wide training sessions.

Amidst its other activities, The UWI St. Augustine Campus continued to strengthen its efforts at reaching out, and communicating with a wide range of external stakeholders. The Campus hosted several conferences, workshops and public lectures, as well as produced several books and other periodical publications, during the 2011/2012 academic year. With a focus on Internationalization, The UWI St. Augustine Campus continued to strengthen collaboration with various institutions in North America and Europe and with institutions in the South such as India, China, South Korea, South Africa and Brazil. The “UWI Discovers” series was also launched and offered senior faculty, administrators and alumni of The UWI to participate in a three-week academic immersion experience in India last May. This initiative extends to Brazil in June 2013 to be followed by South Africa and China.

A full copy of the St. Augustine Campus’ Annual Report can be downloaded at http://sta.uwi.edu/resources/documents/UWI_AnnualReport_11_12.pdf

A full copy of the St. Augustine Campus’ Faculty Report can be downloaded at http://sta.uwi.edu/resources/documents/UWI_FacultyReport_11_12.pdf

 

About The Campus Council

Each Campus of The University of the West Indies has a Campus Council. The Campus Council is the governing and executive body of the Campus, with powers vested by the University Council, to manage all matters as prescribed in Statute 21 and subject to The UWI’s Charter.

At each meeting of Campus Council, the Campus Principal reports to the membership all activities undertaken over the previous academic year, and these include inter alia academic and curriculum updates, changing statistics on students enrolment and graduate throughput, and staffing across all levels of the Campus; management and expansion of the physical Campus sites; and strategic initiatives that are being undertaken to enhance the delivery of all services provided by the Campus. Additionally, the Campus Bursar reports on the audited financial statements for the year in review, and beyond the balance sheet and income statements information is provided on cash flow, finances, accounts, and investments.

 

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

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 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 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, Science & Technology, Food & 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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