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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 3RD APRIL, 2016
CAMPUS COUNCIL MEETING
At the Campus Council from left: Campus Registrar, Richard Saunders, Deputy Principal, Professor Rhoda Reddock, Principal Professor Clement Sankat, Minister of Education, Anthony Garcia,
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Angela Sinaswee-Gervais and Council Chair, Ewart Williams.
Let’s not wait to be asked
B Y E W A R T W I L L I A M S
Mr. Ewart Williams is the chair of the Campus Council of The UWI St. Augustine Campus.
These are his opening remarks at the meeting of the Council held on March 22, 2016 in St. Augustine.
The Annual Report, presented at the Council meeting, can be found at:
The year under review
has indeed been a very challenging
one. The Campus continued to record impressive progress
towards several of the important objectives of our 2012-2017
Strategic Plan; andwe demonstrated an ability to adapt to the
rapidly changing circumstances … but it was a challenging
year, nonetheless.
For the past several years many of our contributing
Governments have been facing difficult economic
circumstances, which have impacted their ability to meet
their obligations to the Campus. The decline in oil and gas
prices beginning in late 2014 has had a dramatic effect on
the local economy and on the Government finances and the
effects of this are now beginning to be felt by the Campus.
The year under review saw a second consecutive year
of enrollment decline, this time affecting both under-
graduate and post-graduate students. This fiscal year also
saw a sizable deficit in the Campus finances, due mainly
to the need to provide for the impairment of receivables
from contributing Governments. The financial squeeze has
intensified during the current fiscal year, and I will say a bit
more about that later.
But challenges bring out the best in us and this one
was no different: for one thing, it forced a consolidation of
some programmes and raised the bar for new qualifying
programmes; it increased the urgency for diversifying our
funding sources and it motivated the Campus to search for
new and innovative ways for partnering with the private
sector to fund large infrastructural projects.
In terms of our many successes, I would like to single
out our unwavering focus on improving teaching and
learning, on the expansion of post-graduate programmes of
particular relevance to national and regional development
needs and the new initiatives to substantially enhance the
student experience and student community involvement.
An area of general concern is that our adverse economic
fortunes are rapidly bringing to the surface a number of
socio-economic ills that could potentially reverse the gains
that the region has made over the past two decades. Our
remit requires that our University provide needed support to
the regional community. In my respectful view, the current
situation presents unique opportunities for intensified
collaboration between the University and our regional
governments as they seek to the find solutions to these
pressing problems. And we are uniquely qualified to help.
In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, it is
widely agreed that economic diversification is now an urgent
necessity. But isn’t UWI, St. Augustine the seat of the Faculty
of Food and Agriculture and haven’t we recently launched a
newAgricultural Innovation Park? We certainly have much
to offer to further the cause of agricultural development. We
are also very well placed to promote a better alignment of
academic research, innovation and entrepreneurship in the
industrial and service sectors.This type of collaboration has
been cited as one of the important factors in the successes
of the more dynamic Asian economies.
And as regards the social sectors, are we satisfied
with our input in ongoing efforts to deal with the spate of
crime throughout the region; with the quality of primary
and secondary education; with the regional gender policy
(including the proliferation of gender-based violence; and
then there is the burning issue of the sustainable financing
of tertiary education.
If we are not playing a major role in solving these
problems, perhaps it’s because we have not been formally
asked… in which case, my answer would be… let’s not wait
to be asked let’s go out and OFFER our services.
Let’s show that we can contribute to the solutions.
Chair, Ewart Williams, speaking at the Campus Council meeting
on March 22, 2016. “An area of general concern is that our adverse
economic fortunes are rapidly bringing to the surface a number of
socio-economic ills that could potentially reverse the gains that the
region has made over the past two decades.”
