 On June 17, 2019, a memorandum of understanding was signed between The UWI and Shell. The agreement will allow the company to provide financial as well as research, training and other support to the University and its students. In his remarks, Pro Vice-Chancellor and UWI St Augustine Campus Principal Professor Brian Copeland spoke on the importance of university/industry partnerships for the benefit of society. His address is included below:
Many years ago, CARICOM echoed the sentiments expressed by generations of Caribbean leaders, even to this day, when it declared that an educated workforce is crucial to the development of this region.
However, the formal education of which they spoke can only be but one component of an effective strategy for developing the kind of citizen that will populate the envisioned highly productive workforce of the future. Those citizens must be capable of shouldering the responsibility of building a sustainably developed society, one that boasts of a buoyant and robust economy, a physically, mentally and spiritually resilient society that is more cultured, caring and emotionally mature, satisfying the needs of humanity without compromising the integrity of the ecology.
This future scenario is very much in keeping with the Mission of the UWI which, acknowledges the call To advance learning, but also speaks to sustainability through the stated mandate to create knowledge and foster innovation for the positive transformation of the Caribbean and the wider world.
It is in this vein that I place great significance on the academia/industry relationship that we solidify today. This, as detailed in this memorandum of understanding between Shell and The UWI, is a symbiotic one in which both parties will collaborate so as to practically deepen the socio-economic development of Trinidad and Tobago.
As many of you know, most recently The UWI was ranked the number one university in the Caribbean, one that the Times Higher Education world rankings has placed among the top five per cent of 25,000 recognised universities globally. We are also the only Caribbean university to be ranked among the best. To remain competitive, we have to continue to ensure that the work that The UWI does is felt outside our walls.
We are therefore grateful that Shell has undertaken to support us in our Mission, not just financially, but also in research in areas of relevance such as new energies/renewable energies, curriculum development, innovation, diversification, continuous improvement, student engagement, training partnerships and on-the-job opportunities involving new energies projects.
Over the past couple of years, I have been doing my best to motivate the staff and students at the St Augustine Campus to switch gears and change the age-old chalk-and-talk and publish-or-perish paradigms, so as to bring more relevance to and impact on society. In particular, I have stressed the need to drive a level of social, ecological, and economic entrepreneurship to ensure that, 15 years from now in the year 2034, it would be clear to all, that Trinidad and Tobago and our region is solidly located on a robust trajectory, headed towards that target of a sustainably developed society .
In this regard, the Campus is actively developing an entrepreneurship ecosystem, a strongly interconnected and well-coordinated network of strategically functional units that establishes an effective pipeline to transform potentially impactful ideas to realisation as product or process. This ecosystem will, in the first instance, promote and sustain economic entrepreneurship with a strong innovative component.
This new innovation and entrepreneurship drive is aligned to our Strategic Plan mandate to bring to bear the knowledge created at UWI to positively impact on the Caribbean economic space and, at the same time, shift the Campus closer to financial self-sustainability and reduced dependence on Government funding. The associated activities that will then be characteristic of what is essentially a transformed university include the licencing of technology and the creation of start-up and spin-off companies that are net foreign exchange earners.
This is our goal, our contribution to the growth of the local and regional economy. However, it cannot be achieved without forging deep and meaningful partnerships with the private sector in the type of symbiotic relationship I made reference to a few seconds ago. This signing brings us one step closer to that empowering scenario.
For the promise it brings, I wish to assure you, our colleagues at Shell that the St Augustine team is very much looking forward to working with you in the years ahead.
I close by making a clarion call to other potential partners – those in Industry, in Governments, national, regional, and international communities – to follow Shell’s example and partner with the St Augustine Campus in our mission to revitalise Caribbean society. Let us turn the vision of sustainable development for Trinidad and Tobago and the Region into a reality. 2034 is not far away.
Thank you.
Professor Brian Copeland
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal
EDITORIAL TEAM
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