Over the years, I’ve maintained that universities are not built to serve themselves. They are built and resourced to serve their communities and nations. This unequivocal truism has been the guiding philosophy on which our beloved UWI has based all that we do to serve the people of the Caribbean.
What a proud legacy we have built in just 75 years, having evolved into an internationally respected, top ranked, global academy that has been at the heart of the economic and social development of the region.
Eight years ago, when I was first appointed Vice-Chancellor, I thought it critical to have a transformational strategic plan that would move The UWI to the highest level. Therein was the origin of our Triple A Strategy, built in two phases. Phase I focused on fixing the university’s reputation – which was in need of repair; and Phase II is focused on translating that positive global brand reputation into revenue.
I believe this is my greatest contribution to The UWI at this time. I have invested all of my experience as an academic, higher education administrator, and Caribbean economic historian to build this plan that is our Triple A Strategy.
And why did we build this strategy upon the three pillars—Access, Alignment and Agility? Well, the focus on Access is because we recognise the Caribbean currently has the lowest enrolment in higher education in the entire hemisphere. The Alignment focus is an imperative to foster much closer organic relations with all of our key stakeholders. Against the backdrop of our vision to be an excellent global university rooted in the Caribbean, Agility is essential to our thrust of global activism and advocacy.
Phase I of our Triple A Strategy was a success, as proven by our global ranking positions, and has set us on a positive path to Phase II’s success.
As we move forward in the second phase of the Triple A Strategy, 2022–2027, our emphasis is on the Revenue Revolution. The university’s financial health is our top priority, and we are aggressively pursuing this by taking greater responsibility for financing the university for ourselves. We acknowledge that without the firm and sustainable contributions of our people and our governments in the financing of this enterprise, we would not be here today. We anticipate their continued support, but are fully seized of the need to diversify our sources of income to reduce dependency on government subventions, and move towards improved budgets for our future sustainability.
We are activists in pursuing income generation for our university. Each campus is embracing an entrepreneurial UWI ethos, and projects are already in train. One of the most game-changing initiatives is the transformation and rebranding of the Open Campus into the Global Campus, and the establishment of the International School for Development Justice (ISDJ), putting us upon a solid footing of earning income and also addressing national, regional, and global needs. We have astutely recognised the financial difficulty of the region and our funding governments, and we are aggressively pursuing “self-help” strategies for the future. I am confident that we will achieve our objectives.
Transformational leadership requires building strong teams and having the confidence in those teams. I have invested in building a strong team of principals, pro vice-chancellors, and senior leaders, and have won the support of our student leadership. I have successfully leveraged the University Finance and General Purposes Committee effectively as the Parliament of the University, and it has proven to be a wonderful institutional tool grounded in a democratic context within which to mobilise everyone. This is the source of my energy – the ability to win support for transformational development.
Indeed, we are full of Pelican pride in our hard-earned status as a symbol of regional unity, of transformation and activism. As we look towards our centenary, The UWI re-commits itself to bold visioning of a future for the Caribbean beyond 2030.
