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UWI St. Augustine Campus turns 59 | Founder’s Day Marks Establishment of Campus in T&T

For Release Upon Receipt - October 11, 2019

St. Augustine


On October 12, 1960, Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, Lord Hailes, Governor General of the West Indies Federation formally handed over the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA) to the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) at the Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain.  Fifty-nine years later, the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) recognises October 12 as ‘Founder’s Day’.

Then Premier of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Eric Williams, was present but, according to historian Professor Bridget Brereton: "The speech of the day was by Arthur Lewis, Principal of UCWI, the future first Vice-Chancellor of UWI (1962) and Nobel Prize winner. He described the 'marriage' being celebrated as one between a mature lady of 40 and a 12-year-old boy, and advised that the boy must be willing to learn and the lady to be tolerant. This was the union which made St Augustine the second campus of the regional University”.

At that time, the 38-year-old Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture was internationally renowned for the high quality of research conducted by top scientists in tropical agriculture at St. Augustine. This core became the Faculty of Agriculture (1960); the Faculty of Engineering would follow one year later. From a total student body of 67 in 1960, all in the Faculty of Agriculture, the St. Augustine Campus today has more than 19,000 students and offers hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, diplomas and certificates through its eight Faculties. It is part of a rapidly globalising university that the Times Higher Education has ranked among the top 1,258 universities in the world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018 and 2019. The UWI is the only Caribbean-based University to make these prestigious lists.

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland noted that “UWI St. Augustine Campus alumni, through their individual and collective strength, purpose, and achievements, have been and continue to be game changers in the advance towards a sustainable economy and ecology in the Caribbean”.

Professor Copeland pointed to the Campus’ enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship. “Not only does this have the potential of shifting the Campus closer to financial self-sustainability, but is critical to national strategies for the transformation of individual economies. This entrepreneurship ecosystem is an effective pipeline to transform ideation to product – to use UWI’s intellectual property for the benefit of society.”

 

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About The UWI

For more than 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students across five campuses: Cave Hill in Barbados; Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda; Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago; and an Open Campus. Times Higher Education has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018 and 2019. The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.

As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); The UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

 

(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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