Antigua PM wants affirmative action at UWI

Antigua and Barbuda has called for affirmative action to allow more students from CARICOM’s non-campus territories to access tertiary level education at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer has expressed “serious concern” over the low number of students from the OECS at UWI campuses compared to the campus territories which are Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

He made his concerns known at the 32nd Regular Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government, in response to a presentation delivered by Professor Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the UWI.

Professor Harris had indicated that only 12 percent of non-campus territories’ students comprise the total UWI student population.

“We have provided more places for students from those territories, of course we have sought to provide more access to students from the OECS…12 percent is certainly not enough,” the UWI Vice Chancellor said, although noting that the process to introduce change has started through the work of the Open Campus – called the UWI 12 project – and recommendations of a special task force on ways to expand the number of places for OECS students at the UWI.

Although saying that the UWI 12 project has merit, Prime Minister Spencer expressed strong dissatisfaction with the number of students being given places to study at the UWI, especially since “it’s the quality of a nation’s human capital resources that will drive its future development prospects at a time of enormous challenges”.

“If we are talking about the integration movement, then we must address the inadequate places being made available to students of the non-campus territories…They must be given the opportunity to live, study and rub shoulders with other students from the campus territories,” he said.

Professor Harris agreed that there is “need for affirmative action on this matter”.

In addition to the three main campuses – Cave Hill in Barbados, Mona in Jamaica and St. Augustine in Trinidad – the UWI Open Campus offers multi-mode teaching and learning services through virtual and physical site locations across the Caribbean region.

There are currently 42 site locations of the Open Campus in the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Source: Caribbean360