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  • 7 months ago
Give the University of the West Indies the lands which its campuses occupy.

It's a call coming from UWI Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles, who says, it would allow UWI to move into a different phase of elevating its finances.

He also highlights an unacceptably low level of people transitioning from secondary into tertiary education.

Alicia Boucher has the details.
Transcript
00:00Governments have been funding 48% of the University of the West Indies operational costs, as added
00:06last year in review figures. So says its Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles, who notes that
00:12at one point, government funding was up to 90%. The Vice Chancellor says instead of scaling back
00:19to fit the new budgetary allocations, it is important that the university keeps growing
00:24as he points to a problem. We are not in a comfortable space. Less than 15% of our school
00:33leavers go on to university. This is far too low. In fact, it is the lowest ratio in our hemisphere.
00:45It is the lowest in our hemisphere. We need to have up to 30-40% of our school leavers and
00:53college leavers going on to tertiary education. Sir Hilary states that to attain more revenue,
01:00the university has become more focused on entrepreneurship, with facilities now producing
01:05for export. The Global School of Medicine at the South Pinal-Debe campus will also welcome its
01:11first cohort this academic year. According to the Vice Chancellor, the research funding aspect
01:16of the university is now also under more strain, as USAID was a significant part of that.
01:23We are now entering a stage of volatility in respect of shifting paradigms, and the USAID
01:35removal from that ecosystem is having its impact. The PVC
01:43for graduate studies and research, PVC Henry Lee has informed us that at the moment we are down by
01:54quite a few million dollars, and we are working to fill that space. However, he is seeking to assure
02:03that strategies are in place to deal with that, including through a deepening of the partnership with
02:08the European Union. The aim is to generate around 40 to 50 million U.S. dollars annually for research.
02:14Sir Hilary cites the leasing of land on which the UE stands as another issue, as it is unable to leverage
02:22its assets. He says UE has done its work and have proven itself to be able to manage its affairs,
02:29and he has this message for the various governments. All we are asking now is to untie our hands,
02:38transfer these lands on which we operate to the university freehold, so we can have that asset
02:48value on our balance sheet. We can go to the banks, and we can go to the private sector, and we can enter
02:56into commercial operations, and we have some collateral. Sir Hilary's remarks were made during
03:03his delivery of the Vice-Chancellor's report for academic year 2023-2024. Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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