News Releases

UWI introduces FIFA/CIES Sports Management Programme

For Release Upon Receipt - February 24, 2010

St. Augustine


A new Executive Sports Management programme from The University of the West Indies (UWI), FIFA and the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) could be just what the Caribbean needs to strengthen this region’s standing in the international sporting fraternity.     (Click here for photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theuwi/4371009214/sizes/l/in/set-72157623467040036/)                                 

 

On February 19th, Professor Clement Sankat, UWI Pro Vice Chancellor and St. Augustine Campus Principal, hosted the launch of a new postgraduate diploma programme in Sports Management which is being described as the first of its kind in the region to be offered at a tertiary level. Professor Sankat acknowledged that the programme was made possible only by the combined efforts of Government stakeholders, FIFA/CIES, the local sporting fraternity and the wider UWI family.

The new programme, which is coordinated by the UWI Department of Management Studies, aims to provide broad-based understanding of sport management, marketing, finance, facilities management and policy development issues, law, communication, and event management challenges involved in delivering sports services in a globalised environment.  

Dr Iva Gloudon, Director of UWI Sport and Physical Education, will call on private and public sector stakeholders to continue to support the initiative through its formative years ahead. She indicated this while addressing an audience that included Mr Jack Warner, FIFA Vice President, and Mrs Margaret Richardson, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education.

Mr Vincent Monnier, CIES International Relations Director, reminded the new students  attending the launch that through their enrolment in the new UWI/FIFA/CIES programme, they had become members of the International University Network (IUN), which includes nine universities from South Africa, Costa Rica, Argentina, Egypt, Senegal, Palestine, Turkey, Chile and Ukraine. As IUN members, students have gained access to resources from any of the member institutions of this network and have become part of the international student fraternity operated by the CIES, Monnier said.

 

Mr Brian-Anthony David, speaking on behalf of the inaugural class, said that the group was looking forward to pioneering innovative solutions to the many challenges in the local sporting industry and fraternity.

The history of the programme dates back to September 2008, when FIFA President Joseph Blatter and The UWI Vice Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris signed a Memorandum of Agreement to undertake cooperative programmes in the areas of research, training, education and facilities development in sport within the region.  The signing ceremony for this Agreement was hosted by Professor Clement Sankat, Principal of the St. Augustine Campus and was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education and the Ministry of Sport; Mr. Jack Austin Warner, FIFA Vice President; Mr. Oliver Camps, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation; and Lord David Triesman, Chairman of the English Football Association.

The University has also introduced a Master of Science degree in Sport Management which commences in February 2010.

For more information about these programmes, please contact Ms Charisse Broome at Charisse.Broome@sta.uwi.edu or the Director of Sport and Physical Education at Iva.Gloudon@sta.uwi.edu or (868) 662-2002 Ext. 2307.

 

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Related Links

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MseLyiG0tc&feature=channel

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theuwi/sets/72157623178345665/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UWISTA 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/UWI_StAugustine  

STAN: http://sta.uwi.edu/STAN/

UWI Today: http://sta.uwi.edu/uwiToday/

 

About CIES

 The International Centre for Sports Studies, created in 1995 by FIFA, is a private Swiss foundation affiliated to the University of Neuchâtel and the City and Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.  The CIES specializes in combining sports with academics with special emphases on the law, economics and sociology of sport.  CIES also provides a wide range of research, education and consultancy services.

 

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean.

UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences,              Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture and Social Sciences.

As the leading higher education institution in the English-speaking Caribbean, The University of the West Indies plays a pivotal role in the development of sport and physical education in the Caribbean.  The UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre (UWI SPEC) located at the St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago has a combined 34,000-plus square feet of indoor space, with seating capacity for 1360 people, as well as outdoor facilities for cricket, tennis, rugby, soccer and track and field.

Contact

  • Sport and Physical Education Centre

  • Faculty/Department

  • Tel.: (868)-645-9239
  • Email: specinfo@sta.uwi.edu