The UWI Experience is a Chance to Direct your Story
 On behalf of all staff of St Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies let me welcome all new and returning students for the 2016/2017 Academic Year.
For new students, the year-long orientation programme, FYE (First Year Experience) would only have just begun. Under this year’s theme, Direct your Story, we encourage you to create your own script, one that will direct your life experience from here on. You should immerse yourselves in student life even as you engage extracurricular activities, residence hall engagement, sporting events and the plethora of opportunities that awaits you as a member of this community.
This thematic approach of directing your own story fits seamlessly with my vision for this University. Having assumed office just a little ahead of your arrival, I started my tenure as your Campus Principal by considering the ways the University can fine-tune its mandate of preparing you for becoming a productive citizen for your immediate benefit and for the greater benefit of the communities your lives will touch.
The UWI has to operate within a universal education system that should, in the first instance, prepare every citizen for crisis by ensuring that they possess the most basic survival skills. A cursory glance at world affairs would easily clarify how important this is. Like many other institutions of learning, our current focus is on education for every citizen to achieve a decent standard of living through adequate preparation in the knowledge and skills required for the local, regional and global workplace. However, we are also shaping the UWI to better nurture the creative and innovative talents required for citizens to contribute to national and regional sustainable development. At the same time, your UWI experience will provide myriad pathways to support personal development and overall, ensure that you are equipped to be a productive citizen.
In my view, the highest priority for any society, and those who govern it, is to build and maintain efficient wealth generation systems that will ensure a high degree of sustainable development – “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (see the World Commission on Environment and Development – The Brundtland Report).
The most effective way of doing this is for citizens to lower their priority on ‘education for getting a job’ and assume the philosophy of education that inculcates a strong innovation culture. I call this the “Innovation Imperative.” This imperative demands that developing nations close the “innovation gap” by strategically construct their wealth generation systems (National Innovation Systems) and kick-start and maintain their engines of wealth creation. This facet of national structure is what significantly distinguishes developed nations from all others.
Closing the innovation gap requires a complete review and assessment of how you spend your time at the UWI. The University experience should be one that nurtures higher levels of critical thinking rather than education for regurgitation of facts. It is about providing you with the knowledge keys to enter new doors of opportunity; giving you pathways to creativity, the ability to identify problems and realise solutions. As the world changes, you will face many challenges that your forebears would have never even envisaged.
Your time and experience at The UWI will also allow you to learn how to network and ‘teamwork’ for leveraging diversity and complementary capabilities. Moving forward in the Information Age V 2.0, you should also have an understanding of how to maintain control of your creativity by understanding Intellectual Property rights.
As we go forward, we will increasingly emphasise education for the development of the whole person, the citizens of tomorrow, even as we strive to address the innovation imperative. This has to be the vision of the future of the UWI, even long after my term has come to an end.
My university years were some of the most exciting, potential-filled times of my life. I ask you to consider these years among those that will have the most impact on your future - so begin with an open mind and set out to grow into the best version of yourself you can imagine. Work hard, work smart but have some fun.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Campus Principal: Professor Brian Copeland
Director of Marketing and Communications: Dr. Dawn-Marie De
Four-Gill
Editor (Ag) : Rebecca Robinson [rebecca.robinson@sta.uwi.edu]
Contact us:
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002 exts. 82013, 83997
Email: uwitoday@sta.uwi.edu
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