The road ahead must be paved by collaboration
 Dean of the Faculty of Science and Agriculture, Professor Dyer Narinesingh has come to the end of his tenure, and as he leaves to make way for a Faculty that has now been split into two—the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Faculty of Food and Agriculture—he talks about his time as Dean, the rationale behind the separation, and the role of UWI in developing the region’s food security.
What have been the most significant developments in FSA in your time?
There were a number of developments which can be considered significant, depending upon one’s perspective, over the last eight years I had the pleasure of serving as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Agriculture.
Those I mention should be viewed in the context of my belief that our Faculty, and by extension, the University in a developing society, has critical roles to play. Through various training activities, it should produce graduates with the necessary competencies to satisfy both present and future human resource needs. Through research development and innovation, it should solve problems; and additionally, through commercialization activities, it should keep our people ahead of competitors. This is critical in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive global community.
In this overall context I view the following as significant developments.
The Faculty has witnessed a rapid expansion in access to its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes over the last five years. Current total enrolment stands at just over 4,100, making it the second largest Faculty (just a close second to the Faculty of Social Sciences) on Campus. It is the largest of the three Science Faculties in the overall University. We live in a knowledge society and a knowledge economy, so it is not surprising that as a Faculty we have been focusing over the years at the graduate level on research degrees (MPhil, PhD) rather than on taught Master’s degrees.
I am a firm believer that our curricula must reflect our present and future client’s needs; as such, our Faculty has placed heavy emphasis on curriculum reform. Several new programmes have been introduced, and many revamped, during my tenure.
One of the challenges facing our society is that after graduating most of our students go out and seek employment. We need to change this paradigm. We need to train more of our graduates to go out and create employment—not seek employment.
Our Faculty has led our Campus in the very challenging area of fostering a culture of multidisciplinary research clusters, especially targeting specific national and regional problems over the last three years. I must say it is becoming infectious. Over the years we had a culture of carrying out our research in isolation and we recognized that we simply do not have the critical mass (human resource) or the physical or financial resources to maximize its effectiveness.
A survey of major innovations shows that these are occurring at the fringes of the disciplines (especially at the fringes of Science, Engineering, Mathematics and the Medical Sciences, coupled with Management). Thus if we are going to do research which can be transformative to our society we need genuine multidisciplinary research clusters which must involve the public and private sector and civil society.
I am pleased that as a result of driving this initiative, our Department of Life Sciences secured over TT$ 10 million in external grants last year alone to fund a couple major research projects. This is a first on the Campus. Too many of us feel it is the University’s duty to fund our research. This is a myth which must be dispelled.
Why split the Faculty of Science and Agriculture?
We repositioned the Faculty of Science and Agriculture to better respond to the rapidly changing local, regional and global environment.
The question has been repeatedly asked and will continue to be asked: what is the rationale for this drastic change? What were the prevailing environmental circumstances and the accompanying thought processes which led us toward this repositioning?
First of all, it is widely recognized by CARICOM Governments (and globally) that Science and Technology and Food and Agriculture are critical to a diversified economy, and to the socioeconomic transformation of the region. As the premier TLI, funded by regional governments, we have to respond and this is what we are doing.
In the western hemisphere, the Caribbean has the lowest level of food security. The food import bill is in excess of $4 billion. Historically, our agriculture has focused mainly on primary production of a few export crops. There is an aging farming population in the region. Generally, agriculture is not considered attractive as a viable career option for young people.
We failed to capitalize on the full benefits of a genuine value chain approach to the agri-food sector… it is only now being appreciated by policy makers).
There is a widespread perception regionally that UWI had marginalized agriculture by merging the Faculty of Natural Sciences with the Faculty of Agriculture in 1996 and so contributed to the demise of the agricultural sector. It is said that in politics perception is reality. There was widespread dissatisfaction among academic staff in the School of Agriculture with the merger in 1996 and this persists.
Our light manufacturing industries are essentially “screw driver” industries. We have not moved fast enough to further downstream diversification of our gas and oil beyond ammonia, methanol and urea. There has been very little innovative product development. This seems to us the domain of more developed society, which is a misconception
We need to capitalize on the full value chain approach to our agri-food sector. We need to let our youths realize that KFC, Mario’s, Rituals and the like, is “agriculture.” Agriculture is a business and as such is as worthy as any other profession.
We need to focus on innovative product development and to see our market as 7.7 billion not 1.3 million or some small neighbourhood. We need to think globally.
The successful economies of the future will be those countries which use knowledge to create wealth for the benefit of all its peoples, not necessarily those with resources such as oil, gas, or other minerals.
What should a faculty such as the FSA and by extension, UWI, do to address this situation? We have to see ourselves as part of the problem and we have to be part of the solution.
I was convinced that our Faculty had a catalytic role to play in this transformation process. However, to do so we needed to reposition ourselves. Our organizational structure, our human resources, our curricula and our strategic direction needed to be re-directed if it were to be transformative.
After almost two years of intense deliberations, we have reached the turning point of launching two new faculties: a Faculty of Science and Technology and a Faculty of Food and Agriculture from August 1, 2012. It is interesting to note that the Faculties of Pure and Applied Sciences at Mona and Cave Hill have also changed their names (and strategic direction) to Faculties of Science and Technology. Obviously we are doing something right.
What were the biggest challenges as Dean?
I basically thrive on challenges. It should be our motivating force.
The major challenges were not necessarily personal challenges but Faculty/Institutional challenges, which still directly affected the effectiveness of my operation as Dean.
One was in building a community of workers (academic, senior administrative and ATS staff) where the mantra is “we create and we execute” rather than “they create and we follow/execute.” The only way we can maximize the human capacity and creative potential of all our staff and students is to build a community or ecosystem of our constituents. This is not an easy task but as a Faculty, I would say we made significant progress.
Another challenge has been improving the efficiency of our internal processes, especially the slow pace of using technology to improve the efficiency of our operations. This needs to be addressed urgently. I hope I am not offending anyone when I say I have been pleading for the last two years for us to introduce a simple thing as online payment. I am convinced that our society simply cannot do business today the way we did it yesterday and we cannot do business tomorrow the way we do business today. I note with optimism that in its 2012-17 Strategic Plan, the University has placed internal operations as one of our six areas to address.
What were your best moments?
I thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as Dean. The most rewarding moments came when speaking to students who performed academically below expectations or who were facing personal challenges. I used these opportunities as a motivating forum, and they generally took place in the presence of parents. The effect was often transformative. For instance, after two hours of dialogue, one parent told me, ‘Dean, I entered this room as one person and I am leaving it as a different person.’ The mother then embraced her son. As they left my office, I did the same. Moments like these I will always cherish.
What were your own research interests?
I did my BSc and PhD in Chemistry at UWI. I actually turned down a foreign scholarship based on the advice of one of my lecturers. It turned out to be one of the best pieces of advice and I want to publicly thank Dr John Briody, my PhD supervisor for this. I immediately joined the academic staff in Chemistry and have been here ever since.
I did many short stints of post doctoral research work for a number of years; first at the University of Ottawa and then at Bioprobe International and Advanced Medical and Diagnostics Limited, biotechnology companies in California.
My research interests are in the general area of biosensor technology: making use of immobilized bio-molecules (especially enzymes and antibodies) in developing sensors for quantifying important metabolites such as glucose, cholesterol, urea, as well as in environmental monitoring and bio-affinity chromatography. Currently we are working on developing a proof of principle of an artificial pancreas using entrapped insulin and glucose oxidase in a specially formulated electrically conducting polymer. In the process, I have published over 50 scientific papers in referred journals and successfully supervised many MPhil and PhD students to date. My tenure as Dean over the last eight years has seriously hampered my research activities. I hope that I will now find the opportunity to go back to the bench!
Where did Dyer Narinesingh come from?
I was born in Arouca; the fifth of six children: four boys and two girls. My father was a farmer, who later trained as a chiropractor. He died at the tender age of 42. He was a strict disciplinarian who recognized the importance of education although neither he nor my mother ever had the benefit of a secondary education. My mother was a housewife who devoted her life to caring for her six children as a single parent after my father died. I attended the Arouca Government Primary School and Hillview College, and after A-Levels worked for a few months before coming to UWI.
My wife, Marion, died at the hands of a misguided youth in 1991, and since then I singly raised my three children: Dylan, a radiation oncologist, Marina, an environmental attorney, and Diana, who is specializing in psychiatry.
My children have been my motivating force in life. On the day their mother was killed and I lay on the grass weeping, Marina, who was ten, put her arm around me and said, “Out of the ashes we will rise again.”
Those words still ring in my ears and I need no other motivating force. |
