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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 2ND AUGUST, 2015
Based on feedback fromparticipants
attendingThe UWI’s
regional conference entitled
Institutionalising Best Practice
in Higher
Education
conference, hosted by its Quality
Assurance Unit and Centres for Excellence in Teaching and
Learning, the conference was exemplary in both execution
and outcomes. In fact, one foreign presenter, Professor Dan
Butin who delivered the keynote address on the second day
of the conference commented: “I thought it was a really
excellent conference both in terms of the professionalismof
how it was put together and the quality of the presentations
and discussions. I attended a variety of sessions and found
the issues to be fascinating and important and the quality of
work superb. I gained a deeper understanding of the issues
facing higher education in the Caribbean and hope that I
contributed to the conversations.”
The conference took place at the Teaching and Learning
Complex, UWI, St Augustine from 24- 26 June ended on
a decidedly high note with calls for a revolution in higher
education. One of the high points of the conference was
confirmation by the Deputy Principal of the St Augustine
campus, Professor Rhoda Reddock that as a good practice,
the Campus will be integrating additional services to allow
for student development in a new Division of Student
Services and Development to be launched from August 01,
2015. Delivering the feature address at the formal opening
Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Sir Hilary
Beckles said that to foster best practice, “wemust insist upon
expansion, diversity and higher education cost reduction.”
The Vice Chancellor called for a culture of innovation and
wealth generation, while Principal of the St Augustine
Campus Professor Clement Sankat highlighted the Campus’s
commitment to programme and institutional accreditation
as a best practice in external quality assurance.
Keynote speaker on the first day, Dr Claudia Harvey,
explored an emergent definition of best practice as “an
intervention, process or approach which has contextual
relevance … is exemplary in its ability to produce superior
results when assessed against set and /or against similar
practie in the relevant core area; engages internal and
external stakeholders; is efficient in terms of resources;
is well-documented; has utility and is recognised beyond
the practice site.” She advised that “to institutionalise best
practice in higher education in the Caribbean, there must be
conscious attention to honing a culture of quality.” She also
outlined a ‘Resilience Model’ for Caribbean development
and illustrated how the Cuba experience provided sound
examples in prioritised areas.
Continuing along the vein of a revolution in higher
education and a culture of quality, Professor Dan Butin
of Merrimack College in the United States, suggested
that to transform and engage our students, we needed
to consider “flipping the university.” This would involve
making the student the centre of teaching, with discussion
and authentic, project centred learning as the core of the
flipped university.
The idea of the student as centre and the importance of
authentic learning were further endorsed by keynote speaker
on the third conference day by Dr Paul Kim of Stanford
University. Speaking on the topic “Academic Excellence in
the Post MOOC Era: Lessons Learned on Technology Best
Practice,” Dr Kim stated that “overall, the digital future in
higher education is obvious and will be phenomenal.” He
illustrated quite visually and eloquently the importance of
students having access to the digital world and being able
to actively engage in a learning environment.
Reflections on integrating best practice principles in
higher education and suggestions for action were provided
over the three-day conference during panel discussions,
discussion circles and presentations by higher education
practitioners fromvarious tertiary level institutions. During
the concurrent sessions, topics for paper presentations
ranged from transitioning to online teaching, flipping
the classroom and exploring foreign language teaching in
the online environment to strategies for financing higher
education, and using peer assessment as a learning tool.
Several recommendations emanated from these discussions.
The conference in accordance with best practice
and inclusion provided opportunity to hear from the
business community as a major stakeholder and also
gave UWI students, as their primary stakeholder, a voice.
Thus presentations from representatives of the business
community as well as from a UWI student representative
formed part of the conference presentations. Teresa White
of AnsaMcAL affirmed the commitment of the private sector
to collaborate with the higher education sector to meet
the needs of higher education students. Her counterpart
Catherine Kumar, Chief Executive Officer of the Trinidad
and Tobago Chamber of Commercemade some suggestions
for improving the partnership between higher education
institutions and the business sector. These included
BEST PRACTICE CONFERENCE
Institutitonalising Best Practice
in Higher Education
B y A n n a - M a y E d w a r d s - H e n r y
encouraging structured internship opportunities. Ms Kumar
supported the Vice Chancellor’s call for greater innovation
and alignment of higher education with the needs of the
region, by suggesting strategies for innovation.
Representing The UWI student perspective, former
President, Guild of Students, UWI Cave Hill, Damini Parris,
called for greater attention to the development of 21
st
century
student services that meet the needs of millenials.
Based on the deliberations at the conference several
general suggestions for institutionalising best practices in
higher education were made, to which higher education
administrators, practitioners and various stakeholders
should pay attention. These included, but were not limited
to, the suggestions listed here:
Create appropriate documentation and sharing
processes for effective dissemination of best
practices and avoidance of duplication
Incorporate more authentic, relevant learning
in institutions of higher education institutions,
with more involvement of all stakeholders and
identification of more varied and stable sources
of funding for institutions
Improve communication within institutions
Encourage leadership as well as effective practice
in persons at all levels of the institution
Associate rewards (and sanctions) congruent
with proper valuation of actions of personnel at
all levels in the institution
Adopt the principles of a learning organization
Further suggestions from the conference deliberations
and the conference papers will be made available digitally
via UWISpace soon. Sponsors for the conference were
Huawei Technologies (T&T) Limited, United Nations
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), National Institute of Higher Education
Research Science and Technology (NIHERST) and
Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT).
Dr Anna-May Edwards-Henry is the Director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at The UWI, St Augustine.
Professor Alan Cobley, Pro Vice-Chancellor
for Undergraduate Studies
Some members of the attentive audience
Vice-Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles
