From Imperial College to Caribbean-based International Campus
THIS YEAR, 2025, marks the 65th anniversary of The University of the West Indies’ St Augustine Campus. It was on October 12, 1960 — our Founders’ Day — that the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), a research and training institution of the British Empire based at St Augustine, was officially handed over to the entity that would become The UWI. This year, commemorating a legacy of six decades and five years, Founder’s Day will be an even greater celebration.
The UWI is more than a university based in the Caribbean. It is one of the region’s prime institutions, and the St Augustine Campus is its edifice in Trinidad and Tobago. The campus is also a physical representation of the ideas and imperatives of leaders such as Dr Eric Williams, and Nobel laureate Sir Arthur Lewis, who believed higher education was vital for island nations on the verge of independence to chart their post-colonial destinies and become well-developed, modernised and competitive states.
Since then, UWI St Augustine has been an asset in the development of Trinidad and Tobago in every sphere. The campus has been integral to the development of every sector — from research, to leadership and policy-making, to the personnel they employ. UWI St Augustine has prepared many thousands of T&T’s citizens for careers at home and abroad. Many of the intellectuals that have shaped the nation’s best and most innovative ideas on the arts, culture, sciences, economics, politics, and several other fields have worked within the halls of this campus.
UWI St Augustine has produced eminent, leading public intellectuals, thought-leaders, change agents, and even icons in every field. They are well-known and respected nationally and internationally. These pioneers have changed the country’s landscape with their visionary work, path-breaking research and public engagement. The St Augustine campus’s focus on research relevant to the nation is unmatched.
UWI St Augustine in general, and the Alma Jordan Library and its various museums in particular, are troves of some of T&T’s most important historical documents and artifacts, and unmatched regional resources for knowledge and information.
Our output is world-class, and members of this campus community are recognised globally as experts in their fields. Its staff have consistently dominated all national awards, and serve on over 94 international committees and organisations, and over 200 regional and local committees and working groups.
They represent T&T and the region on bodies created specifically to address some of the most pressing issues of the present and future, such as artificial intelligence, climate change, trade and economic policy, food security, energy, and many others. The relevance of UWI St Augustine’s work illustrates the campus’s imperative of constant evolution, an environment in which this community not only rises to meet the moment, but creates moments through inquiry and innovation.
This 65-year story is the output of the many people who helped establish and develop the campus, those who provide its services at all levels, and the students who have chosen through the decades to entrust their education to the university. For them, the growth of the campus was synonymous with the growth of an independent Trinidad and Tobago.
“Our nation is a young one that has just been liberated from an imperial power,” wrote student VE Isaacs in the 1966 edition of The UWI magazine “Pelican Annual”. “We are the pioneers of this nation.... We are responsible for the nation’s future.”
Today, UWI St Augustine continues this work while evolving to meet an environment of new opportunities and risks in the higher education space. Perhaps more than ever, the campus has to address disruptions to the way people learn and work, and the way ideas of success are being transformed, and UWI is being called upon to address societal ills, particularly through research and innovation.
Among these issues are pollution and environmental degradation. February 2 is UN International World Wetlands Day, and in this issue of UWI TODAY, we look at some of the activities and research with the potential to repair damage to ecosystems such as wetlands. Researchers from the Faculty of Food Agriculture, working in partnership with other groups, explore the potential of the vetiver plant for soil rehabilitation, defense against landslides and floods, and other uses. The issue also looks at exciting research coming out of the Faculty of Science and Technology focusing on microbial-based organic solutions to pollution.
In this issue, we also cover two separate regional workshops, one dealing with impact of greenhouse gases on mangroves, and the other with the effect of climate change on coastal zones, that were held in Trinidad late last year with major input from UWI St Augustine. These initiatives will support much-needed action.
As always, UWI TODAY will also share stories of the achievements and perspectives of members of the campus community, as well as some of the activities that took place at the end of the year and the beginning of 2025.
All of us look forward to sharing more of these campus stories in this new year, as well as our 65th anniversary activities. May 2025 be a year of growth and positive transformation for all.
