The University of the West Indies (UWI) is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands. Each country is either a member of the Commonwealth of Nations or a British Overseas Territory. The aim of the university is to help "unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth" in the West Indies, thus allowing for improved regional autonomy. The University was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London.
The University consists of three physical campuses at Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, and Cave Hill in Barbados. There is also a virtual, online-based, university through the University's Open Campus. The Open Campus is an amalgamation of the University's previous Office of the Board for Non-Campus Countries & Distance Education (BNNCDE), the School of Continuing Studies (SCS), the UWI Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC), and the Tertiary Level Institutions Unit (TLIU). There are satellite campuses in Mount Hope, Trinidad and Tobago, and Montego Bay, Jamaica, and a Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management in Nassau, Bahamas. The other contributing countries are served by the Open Campus which has a physical presence and Heads of Sites in each of the 18 countries. There are International Programmes and partnerships for universities in the USA, Canada, China, Japan, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico such as University of Toronto, McGill University, Osaka Gakuin University, China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai University, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Emory University, University of Massachusetts, the University of Guelph, Yale University, King's College London, St Andrews University, Northeastern University, Stockholm University, University of California, Sophia University, University of Illinois, Saïd Business School and Universidad de Quintana Roo.
The University has produced students who have excelled in a number of disciplines, including the arts and sciences, business, politics, and sports. Notable alumni and faculty include three UWI (Mona) Nobel Laureates, 61 Rhodes Scholars, 18 current or former Caribbean Heads of Government, and an Olympic medallist. The university's cricket team previously participated in West Indian domestic cricket, but now participates as part of a Combined Campuses and Colleges team.
Video University of the West Indies
History
The university was founded in 1948, on the recommendation of the Asquith Commission through its sub-committee on the West Indies chaired by Sir James Irvine. The Asquith Commission had been established in 1943 to review the provision of higher education in the British colonies. Initially in a special relationship with the University of London, the then University College of the West Indies (UCWI) was seated at Mona, about five miles from Kingston, Jamaica. The university was based at a camp used by evacuated Gibraltarians during the war.
The University College achieved independent university status in 1962. The St Augustine Campus in Trinidad, formerly the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), was established in 1960, followed by the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados in 1963. Before the establishment of the Open Campus, University Centres, headed by a Resident Tutor, were established in each of the other thirteen contributing territories.
In 1950, HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the last surviving granddaughter of Queen Victoria, became the first Chancellor of the University College of the West Indies.
Sir William Arthur Lewis was the first Vice-Chancellor under the UWI's independent Charter. A native of St Lucia, he served as the first West Indian Principal of the UCWI from 1958 to 1960 and as Vice-Chancellor from 1960 to 1963. He was succeeded by Sir Philip Sherlock (a Jamaican and one of the UWI's founding fathers) who served as Vice-Chancellor from 1963 to 1969. Sir Roy Marshall, a Barbadian, was the next Vice-Chancellor, serving from 1969 to 1974. He was succeeded by Dr Aston Zachariah Preston, a Jamaican, who died in office on 24 June 1986, having served from 1974. The fifth Vice-Chancellor was Sir Alister McIntyre, who served from 1988 to 1998, followed by alumnus and Professor Emeritus Rex Nettleford who served from 1998 to 2004. The current Vice-Chancellor is Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, who succeeded Professor E. Nigel Harris in May 2015.
Maps University of the West Indies
Faculties by Campus
Notable faculty and administrators
- Hilary Beckles: historian, vice-chancellor from May 2015.
- Daniel Coore: Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at UWI Mona Campus
- Elsa Goveia: first female professor of UCWI and noted pioneer in West Indian historiography
- Patrick Hosein: Professor in Computer Science at UWI St Augustine Campus
- Dorothy King, CD head of the Microbiology Department of the medical faculty from 1973-2001.
- St. Clair King: Professor Emeritus in Computer and Electrical Engineering at UWI St. Augustine
- Elsa Leo-Rhynie: Principal of the Mona campus.
- William Arthur Lewis: economist, lecturer, author and joint winner of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics of 1979.
- Albert Belville Lockhart: Consultant and Ophthalmologist, Recipient of the Jamaican Order of Merit, co-inventor of Canasol
- Kim Mallalieu: Senior Lecturer in Computer and Electrical Engineering at UWI ST Augustine
- Sam Mc Daniel:- B.Sc. UWI Mona Jamaica, M.A. (Biostatistics), Harvard University, Ph.D, Harvard University
- Evelyn O'Callaghan: Professor of West Indian literature, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education
- Orlando Patterson: John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University
- Manley Elisha West: Professor of Pharmacology, recipient of the Jamaican Order of Merit, co-inventor of Canasol
Notable alumni
UWI graduates who are, or have been, heads of government:
- Kenny Anthony, former prime minister of St. Lucia
- Owen Arthur, former prime minister of Barbados
- Dean Barrow, prime minister of Belize
- Denzil Douglas, former prime minister of St. Kitts & Nevis
- Rufus Ewing, premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands
- Bruce Golding, former prime minister of Jamaica
- Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- David A. Granger, president of Guyana
- Andrew Holness, prime minister of Jamaica
- Patrick Manning, former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago
- Keith Mitchell, prime minister of Grenada
- Joseph Walcott Parry, former premier of Nevis
- P. J. Patterson, former prime minister of Jamaica
- Kamla Persad-Bissessar, first female prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago
- Keith Rowley: prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago
- Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, former prime minister of Barbados
- Kennedy A. Simmonds, former prime minister of St. Kitts & Nevis
- Orlando Smith, chief minister of the British Virgin Islands
- Freundel Stuart, prime minister of Barbados
- David Thompson, former prime minister of Barbados
- Hubert Minnis, prime minister of The Bahamas
Graduates in other fields:
- Sharon Aarons, Australian soil scientist
- Faris Al-Rawi, Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago
- Fae Ellington, Jamaican media personality and lecturer
- Marlon James, Jamaican-born winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction
- Dolliver Nelson, member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
- Kris Rampersad, journalist, author, cultural advocate
- Patrick Lipton Robinson, judge of the International Court of Justice
- Dame Anita Allen, president of the Court of Appeal of The Bahamas
- Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political activist
- Richard Sealy, Barbadian Tourism Minister
- Shafimana Ueitele, Namibian lawyer
- Burton P. C. Hall, judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and former Chief Justice of The Bahamas
- Adalbert "Bert" Tucker, Belize River Valley Development Program (BELRIV)
- Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize for Literature
- Kaye I. Foster-Cheek, Onyx Pharmaceuticals
- Professor Ihron Rensburg, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg
- Edwidge Danticat, Haitian poet and writer
- Olive Senior, Jamaican novelist and writer
See also
- Agence universitaire de la Francophonie
- Association of Commonwealth Universities
- Caribbean Journal of International Relations & Diplomacy
- University of the West Indies Museum
- University of Guyana
- University of Trinidad and Tobago
- University of Technology, Jamaica
- University of the Bahamas
- University of the French West Indies
- University of French Guiana
- Savacou, a sculpture on the Mona site
- Social and Economic Studies (UWI's signature Social Sciences journal)
References
External links
- Official website
Campus websites
- Cave Hill Campus, Barbados
- Cave Hill School of Business
- Mona Campus, Jamaica
- St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago
- Western Jamaica Campus
- Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Mount Hope, Trinidad and Tobago
- Open Campus
Other links
- Aerial view of Mona Campus
- List of Programmes offered through UWI
- The Cavite Chorale, One of the singing groups of the University of the West Indies
- UWI Student Mailing list
Source of article : Wikipedia
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