News Releases

The UWI to Host Regional Conference on Institutionalising Best Practices in Higher Education

For Release Upon Receipt - December 10, 2014

UWI


Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. 10 December 2014 – The University of the West Indies (The UWI) is set to host a regional higher education conference to address the institutionalisation of best practice in the small island developing states of the Caribbean. Scheduled for June 24 to 26, 2015 and organised by The University’s Quality Assurance Unit and Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the conference aims at sharing ways of infusing best practice principles in the management and administration of higher education institutions.

Professor Alan Cobley, UWI’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies, notes “a proliferation of providers of tertiary education for Caribbean people, whether in face-to-face or online modes. This has been driven partly by the growing developmental needs of the region and our people, and partly by the involvement of the region. Yet quality assurance in higher education is still in its formative stages and, in that sense, unfinished business for the region”.

During the three-day conference  at UWI’s St Augustine Campus, therefore, higher education professionals and other stakeholders will explore strategies for embedding best practice principles in institutional systems, processes and procedures, in support of institutional transformation and the pursuit of excellence. Thematic areas, indicative of challenges currently facing the Caribbean higher education sector, will be the focus. Day one will deal with “Context and Its Impact on Best Practice”, day two, “Best Practice, Good Practice, & and Promising Practice Identifying the Evidence” and day three, “Strategies for Institutionalising Best Practice in Higher Education Institutions”.

A call for papers, panels and posters to stimulate discussions among participants and feed into training materials, has been issued. Presentations should address reports or case studies of significant work in research, development, and applications related to aspects of the conference sub-themes. The submission deadline is January 30th 2015.

Interested persons can log onto http://www.uwi.edu/bestpracticehighered/ for further information.

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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 over 50,000 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. Visit www.uwi.edu

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