News Releases

Professor Archibald McDonald is Principal-designate, UWI, Mona

For Release Upon Receipt - July 4, 2013

St. Augustine


The University of the West Indies (UWI) is pleased to announce that Professor Archibald McDonald has been selected to succeed Professor Gordon Shirley as Principal of The UWI, Mona Campus. Professor McDonald is currently Deputy Principal of Mona. 

Professor McDonald has had an outstanding career as a surgeon in trauma and emergency medicine. A graduate of The UWI, he received his postgraduate DM degree in 1987. He is credited with starting the first Accident and Emergency Department in Jamaica at The University Hospital of the West Indies and, with colleagues, established the Advanced Trauma Life Support Programme in Jamaica. Professor McDonald conducted seminal studies that defined the epidemiology of injury in Jamaica which led to the development of Jamaica’s Injury Surveillance System.  He has published some 125 papers and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals.   

From 2002 to 2005 Professor McDonald served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery and then as Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Mona Campus, from 2005 to 2012. While he was Dean, he led historic changes in the Faculty resulting in a complete restructuring of the MBBS curriculum, a 200% expansion in student intake and accreditation of the medical programme by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority in Medicine and the Health Professions (CAAM-HP). He also spearheaded the effort to create a state of the art building on the Mona Campus – the Faculty of Medical Sciences Teaching and Research Complex. For his exceptional leadership and scholarship, he was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in 2008. 

Professor McDonald is Chair of the Jamaican Research and Education Network, a member of the Board of Directors of the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network and Chairman of the Board of St Joseph’s Hospital. 

Professor McDonald will assume the Office of the Principal on September 1, 2013, the date on which Principal Gordon Shirley demits office to become President and CEO of the Port Authority of Jamaica and will continue for three years until his retirement date.

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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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