University of the West Indies looking to expand to Latin America and Asia

The University of the West Indies (UWI) has launched its Global Giving Week 2016. The university Chancellor Sir George Alleyne urged students, alumni and friends to support the regional institution’s appeal to give back to the University.

The institution has over 50 physical site locations in 17 English-speaking Caribbean countries and is now looking to expand globally.

The UWI Global Giving Week 2016 runs from August 1-7 and the fundraising campaign is geared towards scholarships, research, and infrastructure, among others.

According to Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Open Campus, Luz Longsworth, the university plans to take its operations into Latin America and Asia. “We are about to launch the China UWI Institute for software technology, and also a UWI Institute for Latin American and Caribbean studies in China,” she added.

Alleyne said that he is among those who continue to argue that one of the principal areas on which the focus in the Caribbean should be is functional cooperation including the education and health of all Caribbean citizens from The Bahamas, to Bermuda, to Trinidad & Tobago to Belize and Barbados.

He added that because of a decline in government financing, the institution has to find other sources of funding. He informed that the fact that the institution has grown in numbers and academic offerings in spite of its shortcomings is due in large measure to the “ingenuity” of senior managers and the generosity of several persons and organizations. He noted that another confounding variable is the delinquency in payments by some governments which have resulted in a “mounting” debt for UWI.

The University of the West Indies states that its aim is to help “unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth” in the region, allowing for improved regional autonomy. The institution hopes to replicate its success beyond the Caribbean region. -(CMC)