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September 2012
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As a former Campus Council Chairman, you probably take a close interest in the development of The UWI, if you had to identify two areas where you think it needs to put special attention in terms of regional development, what would they be? First of all I believe UWI is a Caribbean success story and one of the institutions that is a source of West Indian pride. UWI has over the decades met and often exceeded reasonable regional expectations. That said, UWI, like all developing organizations, is a “work in progress” and therefore has to continually adjust and adapt its strategic objectives programmes and initiatives to remain relevant in a globalized and ever changing world. One major challenge is the reality of global competition and the obvious need to ensure that our educational output is world class and prepares our graduates for the fiercely competitive arena that globalization has created. The reality is that in just about every field of endeavour our graduates have to match their skills and acumen with the best in the world because the world has become a small village and more and more, customers have ready access to global choices. Even cultural artefacts and mementoes get manufactured elsewhere because of quality, cost and scale. I have no doubt that our students have the ability and the smarts to be among the world’s best. The challenge for UWI today and the future is to ensure that our students get the best in terms of course content, faculty, research opportunities, and the often very costly infrastructure that having the best entails. For us with limited size and scale and island economies that are often stressed, this is often not readily achievable and requires that we do more with less. The choices and decisions are however, not simple and straightforward, and even obvious solutions like specialization in this or that field have to be rationalized with the need to be “all things to all men” in a region where students have limited opportunities. Another area of opportunity is to explore the efficiencies of more integration among the various campuses. We have seen the phenomenon of several business houses in the region attempting to create West Indian organizations rather than a series of individual businesses in different countries with some degree of success. The possibilities and the problems are similar to those that have bedevilled other attempts to regionalize trade, economics, jurisprudence and the hugely more complex minefield of political governance. However, I sense that UWI is perhaps one of the few major organizations that can benefit greatly from the exploration of this option as in the end it will make it easier for us to compete globally because of the benefits of specialization, scale and focus. None of this however makes me alter my view that UWI has achieved far more than we could have hoped for over its relatively short history. What or who would you say has been the most powerful influence on your life? An accurate answer about the single most powerful influence in one’s life perhaps requires a level of self knowledge and introspection that may have eluded me. In my case, my dear mother was the greatest teacher and motivator and perhaps understood best how to get me to stay on the narrow road. She taught the values and the qualities of the “heart” that guide me to this day. She also knew and taught life’s skills, and indeed I remember clearly the exact time and place when she finally impressed upon me that doing well academically was the only way I could make a “success” of life. If I had to single out one teacher who altered my outlook and perspective on life’s possibilities, it was Father Pedro Valdez at St. Mary’s College. Despite his over arching responsibilities as Principal of the College he had the ability to reach and motivate individual students at critical turning points in their journey. Clearly there were others and I am particularly grateful to Father Knolly Knox and Fr Toba Valdez for their most significant interventions. The early influencers are the most powerful, but of course, lifelong friends, mentors and most importantly, Maureen, my wife of 42 years, and our two children, Allan and Natalie, mould and shape life’s experiences. I am grateful to all. At 50, where would you say Trinidad and Tobago has done its best? At 50, Trinidad and Tobago has done well to preserve our democracy and has managed well the fundamental difficulties of diversity in ethnicity, religion and relative achievement, broadly defined. Clearly we had our skirmishes with disorder, but we can be proud of the maintenance of the most important of our political institutions in those times of stress. The peaceful transfers of executive power between the major political groups over the years in all this diversity constitute a major accomplishment. We can also, I think, be very proud of our economic and cultural achievements. The deeper monetization of our natural resources, the creation of the petro chemical sector and our credible successes in light manufacturing and the service economy are major achievements and we can be very proud of the people who made this possible, both from the public, and local and international private sectors. Culturally, we are easily defined and easily differentiated and the evolution of our art forms and modes of expression attests to the richness and uniqueness of our core identity and our innate creativity. In the end, it is our people that we have to be most proud of and the talents and acumen and the diversity that they individually bring to the table and I am thinking of so many of our citizens who have done so well right here in T&T and abroad. You have not asked the question as to whether we can safely say that we have done our best or what we could have done better. That of course is a much more challenging question particularly if one is asked for precise and detailed prescriptions to remedy any perceived deficiencies… more challenging, but more in line with the national discourse and dialogue as I hear it. What does this honorary LLD degree mean to you? There are the usual emotions of surprise, humility and gratitude. In the end one gets to a realization that to those whom much is given, even more is expected. Essentially the award is a challenge to do more and to contribute more. A challenge indeed! |
The UWI St. Augustine Campus will confer an honorary LLD on banker, Mr. Michael Mansoor, during its graduation ceremonies in October 2012. Mr Mansoor shared some thoughts on a country that may have come of age.