12
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 4 MARCH, 2018
CAMPUS MATTERS
VOLUNTEER
OPEN DAY
The Career, Co-Curricular and Community Engagement
Department
of the Division of Student Services and
Development, once again hosted the Volunteer Open
Day at the JFK Quadrangle of The UWI St. Augustine on
February 8.
Volunteer Open Day is an annual event which started
in 2012 as an avenue to enhance and promote awareness
of volunteer opportunities available to students and staff
via external, Non-Governmental Organizations that have
partnered with the University. This ‘information village’
serves as an open forum for organizations to inform our
campus community of their individual missions, mandates
and accomplishments while also providing them (the
organizations) with a pool of volunteers.
Some of the organizations included Habitat for
Humanity Trinidad and Tobago, ALTA, Lifeline, Animal
Welfare Network and the Tunapuna Sports Movement.
There will also be students who are a part of the Alternative
Break 2018 raising funds for their trip to participate in
outreach activities in Grenada.
Also there, was the Caribbean Youth Environment
Network, robustly represented by Tyrell Gittens (in photo)
who explained the main thrust of the organisation which
targets those from 15-29 to help build civic-mindedness
and community activities.
WITHOUT A CAUSE
TheVice-Chancellor ofTheUWI,
Professor Hilary Beckles,
had the fifth launch of his book, Cricket Without a Cause:
Fall and Rise of the Mighty West Indian Test Cricketers
at The UWI St Augustine campus on January 26, 2018.
The event was hosted by the University’s Sir Arthur Lewis
Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES).
Campus Librarian, Frank Soodeen, is presented with a copy
of the book by the author.
BUILDING
BETTER GARDENS
In 2017
the Business Development Unit (BDU)
of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture started a
series of short training courses open to the public.
These courses introduced over 60 participants to
food and nutrition innovation and entrepreneurial
opportunities within the industry.
Targeting organizations as well as home
owners, gardeners, horticulturists, landscapers,
farmers, agri-entrepreneurs and interested persons
at all levels, the BDU conducted six training
courses between June and October, including:
• Arboriculture:
Essentials of Large Tree Management
• Hydroponics: Construction,
Operation and Management
• Aquaponics: Food Production
for the Future
• Basic Home Gardening
• Basics for Agri-preneurs
• Pest Control Operator Training
The overwhelmingly positive response from
participants has driven the Faculty to run a second
instalment of courses. This year’s training series
begins in April with all courses being run at a
reduced cost. The dates and prices are as follows:
• Aquaponics: Food Production for the
Future - $2000 | 16th - 20th April
• Hydroponics: Construction, Operation and
Management - $1800 | 23rd – 27th April
• Hydroponics II
- $2500 | 30th April – 4th May
• Landscape Management for Entrepreneurs -
$2000 | 7th – 12th,14th May
• Basic Home Gardening
- $1500 | 22nd – 26th May
• Composting Essentials
- $1800 | 5th – 9th June
All weekday sessions run from 5.30pm to
8.30pm while Saturday sessions run from 8am
to 1pm.
Additional courses will be scheduled later
in the year.
You can register online via our Faculty website
from March 5, 2018 or at our techAGRI Expo
2018 which runs from March 22-25. Join us for a
weekend of food and nutrition security innovation,
entrepreneurship and commercialization. Come
enjoy a Mini-Workshop as a teaser to our courses
and secure your spot!
Contact: Ms. Tharā Gabriel | 662-3719 |
|
For more than 15 years
prior to the
establishment of the Master of Science
in Development Statistics within the
Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and
Economic Studies (SALISES) at the St.
Augustine Campus, I had been singing
the virtues of such a programme at the
graduate level withinThe UWI. There
has always been a vacuum in preparing
allied professionals to embrace quantitative methodologies
in development studies to the extent that such capacities
were woefully lacking in the Anglophone Caribbean. As
a career statistician for more than 40 years, I was aware of
the magnitude of this shortcoming and initiated a process
that saw the establishment of the Master of Science in
Development Statistics in the 2008-2009 academic year.The
programme is now in its tenth year, having made a tangible
contribution to an emergent stock of quantitative specialists
in national, regional and international organizations.
Globally, professional activities are becoming
overwhelmingly conscious of the value of quantitative data
in decision-making and the programme emphasizes such
a trend in no uncertain terms. Data science is emerging
as a new wave discipline with progressive implications for
every conceivable discipline. Younger cohorts of students are
recognizing this trend and opting for a programme such as
the MSc. in Development Statistics as it provides that right
mix of exposure in preparation for further training in Data
Science. In fact, the traditional fields where mathematical
knowledge thrives, are becoming fully saturated to the extent
that data science has been attracting the overflow.
A blended learning programme is now envisaged and
we are developing the platforms to start delivering the
MSc in Development Statistics through such a mode if not
by 2018-2019, then certainly by 2019-2020. This will be a
more economical and efficient platform for the delivery of
the programme.
For further information on the programme,
please email:
MSc IN DEVELOPMENT STATISTICS:
GROWING IN STATURE
B Y G O D F R E Y S T . B E R N A R D
