News Releases

UWI receives a prized gift from HDC

For Release Upon Receipt - November 11, 2013

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – In a historic handing over on November 5, 2013, Chairman of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), Mr. Rabindranath Moonan, signed a 199-year lease with The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal, Professor Clement Sankat, for eight lots of land situated at Gordon and Smart Streets, St Augustine.  

The handing-over ceremony, which  took place at The UWI St. Augustine Campus, was attended by HDC Managing Director, Ms. Jearlean John, as well as senior administrators and legal officers from the HDC. Senior Administrators from The UWI, including Deputy Principal, Professor Rhoda Reddock; Campus Bursar, Richard Saunders; Director of Human Resources, Stephen Sheppard, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Head of the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Professor Ann Marie Bissessar were also in attendance. The Campus Principal complimented Professor Bissessar for her initiation and engagement with the HDC leading to the acquisition of the land. 

Professor Sankat expressed his gratitude on behalf of the St. Augustine Campus and the Department of Behavioural Sciences and the Faculty of Social Sciences for one of ‘the most expensive gifts’ that the University has ever received from a state corporation. He observed that with nearly 19,000 students and3,000 staff, the University is severely constrained with respect to space at St. Augustine. It was proposed that the building to be erected on this property would serve as a broad “policy and governance” institute, incorporating areas such as Criminology, Mediation, Strategy, Policy and Planning. 

The vision for the proposed structure is the creation of a Research and Graduate Centre of Teaching and Learning, comprising a number of seminar spaces for graduate students within the Department of Behavioural Sciences, research offices, research facilities and training seminar rooms and conference spaces for the Faculty of Social Sciences.

As the largest faculty at the St. Augustine campus of The UWI, the Faculty of Social Sciences has a current enrolment of over 6,000 students. The broad vision for the institute is for it to be used by national and regional governments for research as well as the training of public and private officials and graduate students.

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PHOTO

Mr. Rabindranath Moonan, Professor Clement Sankat and Jerlean John

(L-R) Chairman of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), Mr. Rabindranath Moonan; Pro-Vice Chancellor and Campus Principal, Professor Clement Sankat and HDC Managing Director, Ms. Jearlean John.

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, 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.) 

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

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