Carnival, our grand festival and statement of culture, has ended. Now, the campus and the country are refocussing their efforts on the urgent business of progress. At the end of this first quarter of 2023, UWI St Augustine continues along its productive path, using the time efficiently to meet several of our transformational goals.
Truly, 2023 is a very important year, not only for this campus, but for the entire University of the West Indies. This year, we observe The UWI’s 75th anniversary. It was in 1948 that the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) was established in Mona, Jamaica. The college was created following recommendations from the Irvine Committee, the West Indian arm of a UK commission created to look at the provision of higher education in the British colonies.
From this beginning, The UWI bloomed. In 1960, the second campus at St Augustine was established. For the St Augustine campus, birth is also associated with the renowned Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA). ICTA was established over 100 years ago in 1921, and is the ancestor of today’s Faculty of Food and Agriculture, still the only one of its kind.
The Cave Hill campus in Barbados was realised in 1963. The Open Campus, a distance learning campus created to provide better access to education for Caribbean people without a landed campus, began operations in 2007. Most recently, the Five Islands campus opened its doors in Antigua and Barbuda in 2019.
These structures matter, but The UWI’s legacy is much more than campus grounds and buildings.
In its 75 years, this institution has educated thousands of Caribbean minds – political leaders, business people, the public servants, professionals, scientists, scholars, artists, activists, and organisers for social and community development, and led ground-breaking research that shaped Caribbean civilisation.
This research has also provided an enormous contribution to scholarship internationally. The work of UWI graduates in the arts and sciences has had great impact on the registry of human creativity, ideas of equality and morality, and critical thought. UWI graduates have helped to formulate policy and even led many of our post-independence states.
In the scope of history, even the history of the West, 75 years is a very short time. The UWI has used that time with an efficient audacity that is quite frankly mesmerising. We look forward to sharing more of the university’s legacy in this year of celebration, and to celebrating together with our thousands of alumni.
Our legacy deserves celebration and we seek to pay it forward. With this in mind, this message is an appropriate space to highlight the work of one of UWI’s gems, the internationally renowned UWI Cocoa Research Centre (CRC) and its realisation of a long-standing goal – securing the funding for a chocolate factory which will pave the way in cocoa innovations.
Thanks to a public sector investment programme (PSIP) from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the CRC has been provided partial funding for the factory. It will be located at the University Field Station in Mt Hope as part of CRC’s International Fine Cocoa Innovation Centre (IFCIC).
For many years, UWI CRC has been leading the effort to revitalise cocoa in the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago in particular. It has trained the now several chocolatiers in the country, nurtured and developed the largest cocoa seed bank in the world, built capacity for cocoa growers, and now turns to its own entrepreneurial efforts.
Trinidad is internationally renowned for the Trinitario cocoa bean used in premium chocolate products. The plans for the IFCIC include a business incubator facility; a museum of cocoa plants; a cocoa tourism centre; a restaurant, kitchen and labs; a “chocolate academy” for courses in chocolate making; and the chocolate factory.
This factory will be equipped for chocolate-making, and produce products such as couverture chocolate, cocoa liquor, cocoa nibs, and of course, chocolate. The factory is estimated to be completed by August/September of this year and commissioned by early 2024.
The chocolate factory, IFCIC, and CRC itself represent UWI St Augustine at its best. They are supporting the rejuvenation of a valuable sector that is capable of creating new and lucrative opportunities for international trade. They work with local farmers, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs. They partner with the government. They are a resource of knowledge and an international gene bank for thousands of varieties of cocoa.
CRC is UWI as it was intended to be, making a tangible contribution to national and regional development.
Visit The UWI’s 75th anniversary website at https://uwi.edu/75/.
