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UWI community mourns Professor Emeritus Selwyn Ryan

For Release Upon Receipt - March 13, 2022

St. Augustine


The late Professor Emeritus Selwyn Ryan at the launch of his book ‘Ryan Recalls’ Ryan Recalls’ which took place on Wednesday 30th October, 2019, at the School of Education Auditorium, The UWI, St Augustine Campus

ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago. Sunday 13 March 2022 – The St. Augustine Campus Community of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) as well as UWI alumni around the world have been thrown into mourning on the passing of Professor Emeritus Selwyn Ryan, recognized as one of the Caribbean’s foremost scholars and writers of political history. Over his prolific career as a researcher and writer, Professor Emeritus Ryan wrote newspaper columns, academic papers, and articles for journals, documenting exciting moments in the contemporary political history of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.

However, it was the St. Augustine Campus that Professor Emeritus Ryan considered his ‘home away from home’ and where, on October 30, 2019, he chose to launch his last book, Ryan Recalls – Selwyn Ryan: His Memoirs as he said thank you to all those persons who had encouraged and supported him through the decades. At that time, UWI’s Alma Jordan Library also celebrated the launch of the Selwyn Ryan Collection. This is a collection of manuscripts, correspondence, and scrapbooks from his early life at home and abroad; all donated by the professor as research material for students and younger academics.

Dr. Acolla Lewis-Cameron, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, remembers his passion for Caribbean development while Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal Brian Copeland reflected on Ryan’s fervent wish at this last book launch; that younger academics pick up where he left off and continue to write and record our history.

“We can pay no greater tribute to a man who has done so much for country and region”, Copeland said, “than by fulfilling his most earnest desire. Students and graduates of The UWI will continue – as succeeding generations have done for the last 75 years - to advance learning, create knowledge, and foster innovation for the positive and sustainable transformation of this Region and, indeed, the wider world.”

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About The UWI 

The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region. 

From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global 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 its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. 

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world. 

Ranked among the top universities in the world, by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education, The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists. In 2020, it earned ‘Triple 1st’ rankings—topping the Caribbean; and in the top in the tables for Latin America and the Caribbean, and global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the top universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action. 

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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