October 2013


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Message from the Principal: Fostering Regional Discourse

The UWI stands out as one of the strongest symbols of West Indies integration and it must continue to find ways to promote the interests of West Indian societies through the interaction of our staff, students, alumni and key stakeholders. This is what many of us, through discussion and sometimes fierce debates, have been doing over the years and The UWI has provided a forum to facilitate this.

Times have changed and we have witnessed the growth of national institutions as well as the penetration of foreign institutions, all responding to market demands for tertiary education. While this may be a positive sign, is it sustainable in the long term? And is this helping to build our indigenous knowledge base and to strengthen West Indian capacity in a manner that will ensure robustness and quality? CARICOM has a key role here. Higher education funding, quality, accreditation, articulation and mobility, together with research and innovation, must be high on CARICOM’s agenda and our region must support this much more than it is doing!

I think it is time for The UWI, with CARICOM’s support, to establish itself as the leader in driving the transformation of the entire higher education sector of the region. Our institution has the experience, the regional machinery and the human capacity to take the lead in creating the framework for a federal university system that encompasses all publicly funded Caribbean tertiary education institutions. I have spoken of this before as a means of building sustainability and “West Indianness” as we go forward.

We need to create a new generation of West Indians committed to such a cause, and our schools and universities are great starting points. And as we look to CARICOM to deepen the integration movement, CARICOM countries can also look to UWI, as a model on how we have brought 16 sovereign territories together to create a unique regional institution that has continued to grow and thrive over 65 years.

With this in mind, we have initiated a regional discourse, first by inviting the Secretary-General of CARICOM, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque to share his vision on its future, and by having Sir Shridath Ramphal further the conversation with his insights. We will continue to foster this type of regional discourse at the Campus and hope that this commitment to regionalism will continue to spread across our individual national territories as we seek to address challenges that are common to all West Indian societies and to strengthen our position as a region in international affairs.

EDITORIAL TEAM

Campus Principal: Professor Clement Sankat
Director of Marketing and Communications: Mrs. Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill
Director of Marketing and Communications (Ag.): Mrs. Wynell Gregorio
Editor: Ms. Vaneisa Baksh

Contact us:
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002 exts. 82013, 82014
Email: uwitoday@sta.uwi.edu