CHILL MAGAZINE

The value of The University of the West Indies to the development of Barbados and the wider region cannot be measured only in the number of students it graduates but also in its overall contribution to our sustained development. Anyone who doubts the value of a university to a nation’s progress only needs to compare communities which host a campus to those which have no such institution. The presence of a relevant university changes the dynamics

 

The value of The University of the West Indies to the development of Barbados and the wider region cannot be measured only in the number of students it graduates but also in its overall contribution to our sustained development. Anyone who doubts the value of a university to a nation’s progress only needs to compare communities which host a campus to those which have no such institution. The presence of a relevant university changes the dynamics

Barbados has been blessed with a vibrant academy whose intellectual community sprang from a vision for tertiary education which has been carefully assessed and sustained. We at Cave Hill Campus are faced with the challenge of staying true to the vision of our founding father, the Rt Excellent Errol Barrow, and the policy of higher education for the government of the day. It remains a fundamental marker for the senior management and one which we deal with each time the stakeholders of the University – the governments, private sector, international donor community, as well as the students and alumni community – are engaged.

 

[The role of a university] is to help the entire culture to rise – everything we do, how we speak, how we behave, our cultural expressions, the arts, how we care for the elderly, how we nurture our children, suppress domestic violence, enhance the respect for the environment – all of these actions constitute the value a university can bring to lift a people to a higher level of comprehension.

 

Our challenge is that of making sure our regional community is highly educated in skilled and relevant ways to survive in a turbulent 21st century. How are we going to make sure that Barbados and the region, without an abundance of natural resources, can maintain its position as a competitive civilisation in the years going forward? How are we going to plan for that? How are we going to strategise it? How are we going to cost it? How are we going to budget it? How are we going to put it all together to make sure that these nations survive with respect?

 

We are hearing conversations about failed nations and failed states. However, we are determined that the jurisdictions we serve will not be classified as such, because we believe that our university will play a positive, transforming, developmental role.

 

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