SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER, 2016 – UWI TODAY
3
EDITORIAL TEAM
Campus Principal
Professor Brian Copeland
Director of Marketing and Communications
Dr Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill
EDITOR (Ag.)
Rebecca Robinson
CONTACT US
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002, exts. 82013 / 83997 or email:
Vice-Chancellor ofTheUWI,
Professor SirHilary Beckles honoured former
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal of The UWI St. Augustine,
Professor Clement Sankat, with a special reception at the end of September.
The reception was held at the University Inn and Conference Centre for
some 200 friends, former colleagues and well-wishers of Professor Sankat.
The event was chaired by University Registrar, C. William Iton and was
filled with tributes from a cross-section of Professor Sankat’s former UWI
colleagues, including Professor Brian Copeland, current UWI St. Augustine
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal. Tributes were also given by
Professor V. Eudine Barriteau, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal
of The UWI Cave Hill Campus on behalf of the Campus Principals; Ewart
Williams, Chairman of The UWI St. Augustine Campus Council on behalf
of the Council; Professor Patricia Mohammed, Campus Coordinator at
the School of Graduate Studies and Research on behalf of academic staff;
Sharan Singh, Director of the Office of Institutional Advancement and
Internationalisation, representing senior administrative and professional
staff; and Steve Ramoutar, representing administrative, technical and
support staff. The former Campus Principal’s response was a mixture of
jovial ribbing, gratitude and advice for successor, Professor Copeland. The
formal proceedings concluded with remarks by Campus Registrar, Richard
Saunders, performances from soca artiste, Blaxx andThe UWI Arts Chorale.
Sankat spent the majority of his professional career at The UWI,
totalling 38 years of dedicated service in various capacities including Pro
Vice-Chancellor & Campus Principal of the St Augustine Campus for two
consecutive terms (2008 – 2016), Pro Vice-Chancellor of Graduate Studies
& Research, Campus Coordinator for Graduate Studies & Research, Dean
of the Faculty of Engineering, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering,
Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor of Food &
Agricultural Engineering, Reader, Senior Lecturer and Lecturer.
Former Campus Principal
Professor
Sankat
honoured at farewell
CAMPUS NEWS
Professor Clement Sankat receiving a gift from current UWI St. Augustine
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Brian Copeland.
Professor Clement Sankat with members of his family.
The national budget
2016
having been read
last Friday, makes it
clearer that Trinidad and
Tobago is facing a financial
challenge. We have another
budget deficit brought on
by what might well be
viewed as a man–made
phenomenon. Man–made
in that a financial crisis
has occurred simply because all of the economic eggs
have been placed in one basket – oil and gas – and we
have no control over the prices of those commodities.
Hence we find ourselves in a situation as a country
with revenues frompetroleum (our national economic
“egg”) declining, from around $19.3Bn in 2014 to
$1.7Bn in 2016.
Since we have to survive, even at the most
fundamental level, the situation requires that we find
ways to compensate for the shortfalls from oil and gas.
Hence, my contribution to the discourse of solutions
is that we seek to leverage on the investments we have
made in our human capital via the GATE Programme,
among other things. The timing is right for us to make
those human capital resources work for us.
This proposal towards a solution focuses on
innovation and education for sustainable development.
An Innovation System (IS), whether deliberately or
accidentally developed, is an innate and essential
characteristic of all developed nations. Once well-
functioning, its role is to optimally facilitate the
transformation of new ideas to commercial reality,
facilitate the formation of whole new companies and
industries, strengthen the competitive advantage
of existing product lines, provide a high degree of
robustness against economic uncertainties - natural and
man-made disasters. Therefore an Innovation System
is the basis of a country’s sustainability.
In the current environment, the business of
education should be, at the very least, about ensuring
that every citizen possesses basic physical and mental
survival skills. Its most commonly acknowledged
purpose is to maintain society by providing the
educational means to empower individuals for the
job market and thus achieve, at minimum, a decent
standard of living and to nurture ‘good citizenship’.
Furthermore, education is meant for personal
development. But, most significantly, and given today’s
worrying economic state, education must ensure that
society is maintained and developed through the
forging of new concepts, methods and products that
improve upon its current state while ensuring that
the existence of future societies (our descendants) is
not compromised. This is the standard definition of
“sustainable development”. It requires the nurturing
FROM the Principal
The Education AND Innovation Imperative
and Sustainable Development
of the creative and innovative talents and skills of our
citizens.
Consider that an innovation is a product or
process that has been created anew and has begun to
produce returns on investment thus bringing value to
society. Most consider innovation in only an economic
context, but innovations can exist in economic, social
or ecological dimensions. However, the economic
dimension fuels the social and ecological dimensions
and wealth generation that is necessary for sustainable
development.
Closing the gap between sustainable development
that is fuelled by innovation and wealth generation
requires a complete overhaul of the ideology and
operation of our education systems. Some of the key
tenets that have to be reconfigured are education
for nurturing vs. programming, seamlessly meeting
students (of all ages and backgrounds) where they are,
and taking them where they want to go (equality of
access), developing their skills in creative and critical
thinking, their ability to identify problems and realise
solutions, their ability to network and “teamwork” to
leverage complementary capabilities, to understand
IP and its politics, to understand business and
entrepreneurship and to be success motivated.
The proposed Entrepreneurial Talent Grant is
being positioned as the force to ignite the spirit of
innovation. In such an initiative, citizens will be invited
and encouraged to present innovative business ideas
for evaluation by a panel of accomplished businessmen
and entrepreneurs. The top five projects will receive
a $1 million grant to facilitate the development and
implementation of their business concepts.
The cha l l enge t o t h i s mi l l i on dol l ar
Entrepreneurship initiative in financial year 2017 is
how to provide an enabling environment – minimal
bureaucracy, fast track public sector agencies and
administrative support, and a total education system
that promotes and encourages critical thinking for
innovation and entrepreneurship – from cradle to
grave.
With the decline in oil and gas revenues now is
an opportune time to trigger the human capital and
education the new “engines of growth”. For the nations
of the region to collectively achieve developed status
they must close the gaps in the wealth generation
pyramid, kick-start the engine of knowledge innovation
and then maintain the system. In other words, to
achieve innovation that can contribute to sustainable
economic development the country must collectively
build national innovation systems.
Professor Brian Copeland
Campus Principal
