Message from the Principal: Minding our business - 2014
 The start of a year offers the promise of new beginnings; it is a time that encourages reflection and resolution, and often, shifts in direction. Our St Augustine Campus has been engaged in a number of strategic planning exercises over the last year, and one of the major outcomes is a dedicated thrust toward commercializing many of our enterprises, and seeking new ways to enhance its capacity to be more financially self-sustaining. We need to pursue strategies that balance our income and expenditure with the provision of services that are income earning.
We are mindful of the State’s burdens challenged by slow economic growth internationally and have sought to focus even more this year on what we might call ‘minding our business,’ in the sense of looking at ways to facilitate commercial efforts from the campus.
We are in the process of finalizing our plan for this commercialization, which in part, deals with the various relationships with vendors, and public-private partnerships and getting support from our alumni. It also includes establishing various commercial spaces to sell the goods and services that are needed on the Campus and for which there is an obviously large market. There are several other initiatives being explored; all aimed at enhancing viability.
This is not a new concept for universities; global circumstances have prompted a shift into a more entrepreneurial mindset for quite some time, with Universities building partnerships to succeed.
Last November, Calestous Juma, a Professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, spoke at the St Augustine campus on the importance of investment in higher education research; diversification of the economy through genomics and nanotechnology; and leapfrogging to accelerate national development. He cited the Cocoa Research Centre’s work in genomics as a striking example of how successful such a shift can be, and he saw our agricultural sector as one that represents an enormous opportunity for technological growth. The new University Inn and the soon to be opened Convention Centre, our University Field Station at Mount Hope and Orange Grove and our residences and other physical facilities, are examples of the possibilities for increased commercial activity, linked to the training and research that we also pursue.
Professor Juma said universities now see themselves as engines of economic development, and that should be welcomed.
We are intent on building on this model with a view to enhancing our sustainability, for the benefit of all.
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, 83997
Email: uwitoday@sta.uwi.edu
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