The future of The UWI was the topic of discussion at the Annual University Council Meeting, held on May 2. At the heart of that future, laid out in the report from Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, were a dedicated institute for artificial intelligence, and the widening of education accessibility to promote its financial prosperity.
It was the first in-person Council meeting since 2019. UWI Chancellor Dodridge Miller presided, his first official annual meeting as Chair of the Council since taking office in August 2024.
In his report entitled “Regionally Respected. Globally Celebrated”, Sir Hilary explained that the AI institute has been approved by the university’s Finance and General Purposes Committee. It will harness the potential of AI across the region and consolidate AI projects currently embedded in several UWI programmes.
“We've decided to aggregate it, put it all together,” the Vice-Chancellor explained.
During his call to order and welcome, Chancellor Miller described The UWI’s 2023-2024 academic year as “a transformative one”. He stated, “Our international outlook and exceptional research quality are a testament to the dedication of our leadership, faculty and students who work tirelessly to maintain our relevance and our visibility.”
In his report, Sir Hilary noted, “We are an elite university, but I hasten to add we're not an elitist university. We are there among the best in the world, but we are a public university for all the people of the Caribbean.”
Among the efforts to make the university more accessible, he highlighted The UWI Five Islands Campus, launched in 2019, that serves citizens of Antigua and Barbuda and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
“The government of Antigua and Barbuda was able to negotiate a US$80 million financial arrangement for the build-out of this infrastructure,” Sir Hilary reported. “This is the largest injection of capital in our university in quite a while.”
He also highlighted the milestone of the Global School of Medicine that is preparing to welcome its first cohort of students in September 2025. He described it as a for-profit offshore medical school which will serve as “a medical corridor” to connect St Augustine and Mount Hope to Couva through Penal/Debe.
Sir Hilary emphasised The UWI’s championing of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), noting that UWI researchers have already mastered the appropriate disciplinary fields aligned with the goals. He reminded his audience that many UWI scholars have advocated for SDGs within the United Nations as they are necessary to achieve social and economic development and sustainability in the region.
The next step was to package this knowledge into “a viable commercial product” of master’s programmes. The result is a global online school, the International School of Development Justice, launched in August 2024, which is dedicated to the SDGs.
“We're going to sell the Caribbean pedagogy to the world,” Sir Hilary declared, adding that The UWI is now the only university in the world with a graduate school dedicated exclusively to SDGs.
The Vice-Chancellor did not balk at addressing The UWI’s funding obstacles. The university is responsible for generating 50 percent of its operating costs. The recent loss of funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is making itself felt, but Sir Hilary stressed that they are sourcing alternatives.
“We have always had a strategy to diversify our donor contributions to our research projects,” he said. “We will take a hit, but it's not going to deter or undermine or weaken [us] because we have strategies in place to expand access to those funds in other locations.”
While Sir Hilary outlined the contributions from other countries as well as foundations and fundraising activities, he emphasised a critical issue concerning The UWI’s assets. The university has been leasing government land for 77 years and is proposing that regional governments give the university the land as an asset, a tradition among North American land-grant universities.
“That is how those universities prosper,” explained the Vice-Chancellor. He said that if the regional governments allow this, it would be key to The UWI’s financial future.
The university would be able to enter into commercial operations with banks and the private sector, and have the collateral to create various financial arrangements for long-term sustainability. They have written to all of the governments requesting this transfer of lands to the university freehold.
“We are at the crossroads and this is it,” Sir Hilary stated, adding that they did not expect governments to just facilitate the transfers and walk away. “Whatever we do with those lands, we will enter into a mechanism where the governments will be at the table.”
“All we are asking is for our government to untie our hands,” Sir Hilary proclaimed. He stressed that The UWI’s growth is proof of its responsibility and inter-generational leadership. “We have demonstrated evidence overwhelmingly that we can manage our affairs.”
