News Releases

Coming Soon! The Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean

For Release Upon Receipt - April 17, 2014

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will formally open the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, on May 6, 2014 at The University Inn and Conference Centre on Circular Road, St. Augustine.

The Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean, a joint project between the Government of Trinidad & Tobago and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and The UWI through its Institute of International Relations, is the first of its kind in the Caribbean.

Professor Andy Knight, Director of The Institute of International Relations, notes that it will reach out to a cross section of target groups and beneficiaries, beyond the strict confines of CARICOM, to all those involved in one way or the other in international cooperation and transactions. It will epitomise the modern day diplomatic academy and provide learning and training not only to diplomats and government officials, but also much wider groups, such as other state agencies, NGOs, businesses and civil society.

 “When it is launched in May,” Professor Knight says, “it will meet a clearly felt need, in the absence of any proper training and learning facility regionally, to offer programmes in diplomacy at various levels and on diverse but relevant subjects.”

The UWI’s Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean is being established initially on a two-year project basis. While an integral part of The UWI and its Institute of International Relations, the Diplomatic Academy will have a separate identity and mandate.

The Diplomatic Academy will use new and innovative training techniques in practical, hands-on modules. There will be experience sharing and learning as well as networking with the best expertise regionally and internationally.  Its first Module on Contemporary Diplomacy will run from May 7 to 10 and 12 to 13, 2014. It will be led by Professors Jorge Heine and Andrew Cooper from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, Canada.

Interested persons should email diplomaticacademy@sta.uwi.edu or call 868 662 2002 extension 82084 or visit http://sta.uwi.edu/iir/ .

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About The UWI

Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with well over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation.

 

(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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