News Releases

Professor the Most Honourable V. Eudine Barriteau to serve for an additional year

For Release Upon Receipt - June 8, 2020

UWI


Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal at The UWI Cave Hill

At its annual business meeting, held on May 13, 2020, the University Council approved the recommendation to extend the appointment of Professor the Most Honourable V. Eudine Barriteau, as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus. Professor Barriteau who has served in this capacity for the past five years has been offered a one-year post-retirement extension to the end of academic year 2020-2021.

In addition to the University Council’s endorsement, overwhelming support for her extension came from across a wide range of stakeholder groups consulted in the decision, including the Campus Council, the campus leadership, faculty, student body, and other colleagues and officials. 

The extension of Professor Barriteau’s term of office provides valuable stability in the University’s leadership to facilitate the continued close collaboration with the Government of Barbados in an effort to restore the full funding of Barbadian students at The UWI, a policy designed to rescue the provision of higher education in the country and to secure the future of the Cave Hill Campus. It is recognised that this initiative calls for careful and precise management; which the University and the Government of Barbados have expressed the fullest confidence in Professor Barriteau to so do. 

Amid the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting of University Council also approved Professor Barriteau’s added portfolio of responsibility for the social impact of COVID-19 on students and staff.  This, in support of the University’s commitment to confronting the dimensions of equity and inclusion implications of the COVID-19 crisis.

A Professor of Gender and Public Policy, distinguished Caribbean scholar and experienced senior University administrator, Professor Barriteau has served in various roles at The UWI for over 30 years. She was the first Head of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit for fifteen years. She was also the first woman at The UWI to be appointed Campus Coordinator, School for Graduate Studies and Research, a position she held for four years. She then became the second woman to be appointed Deputy Principal at the Cave Hill Campus in August 2008, for a six-year tenure. Thereafter, she transitioned to The UWI Open Campus to serve as its second Principal. She held this office for nine months before assuming the Principalship of the Cave Hill Campus in May 2015.

During her tenure as Principal, Professor Barriteau has spearheaded a number of initiatives relevant not only to the Cave Hill Campus, but to the wider regional University system.  In 2016, she recommended creating a Faculty of Sport, which The UWI established in July 2017, the first new Faculty to be introduced in 47 years. Professor Barriteau successfully gained recognition for the Cave Hill Campus in meeting comparability of standards for its Faculty of Medical Sciences, from the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA) in October 2016.  In 2017, she launched the Smart Campus Initiative, designed to reconceptualise the delivery of higher education goods and services in Barbados and the Caribbean by harnessing Information and Communication Technology to support national and regional development.  In October 2019, The UWI approved the proposal developed by Professor Barriteau for the establishment of a Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts which comes into effect from August 1, 2020. Under her leadership the Cave Hill Campus secured the maximum seven years of institutional re-accreditation in November 2019, with commendation for its sound leadership, culture of professionalism, and teaching, learning and quality assurance systems.

Professor Barriteau has received a number of national, regional and international awards and recognitions for her outstanding contribution to tertiary education, her pioneering leadership in the development of gender studies and the promotion of gender equality. Among her distinctions are two national awards. The Order of Grenada Gold Award for Excellence was conferred by her homeland, Grenada, on the occasion of its 42nd Independence anniversary celebrations in February 2016. This was followed by the Order of the Freedom of Barbados—the country's highest national honour—bestowed on her in November 2019, in celebration of Barbados’ 53rd Anniversary of Independence. 

 

                                                                     End.

 

About The UWI

For over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has 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 and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean 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; the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ); The UWI-University of Havana Centre for Sustainable Development; The UWI-Coventry Institute for Industry-Academic Partnership with the University of Coventry and the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research with the University of Glasgow.

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. The world’s most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education, has ranked The UWI among the top 600 universities in the world for 2019 and 2020, and the 40 best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean for 2018 and 2019. The UWI has been the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.  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.)

 

Contact