University of the West Indies
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Motto | Oriens Ex Occidente Lux (Latin) |
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Motto in English
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A Light Rising From The West |
Type | Regional university Public, Autonomous |
Established | 1948 |
Chancellor | Sir George Alleyne |
Vice-Chancellor | Sir Hilary Beckles |
Academic staff
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1,200+ |
Students | 36,000+ (across 4 campuses) |
Campus |
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Mascot | The Pelican |
Affiliations | Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) |
Website | www.uwi.edu |
The University of the West Indies is a public university system serving 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
- Jamaica
- Montserrat
- St. Kitts and Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
Each of these countries 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.[1] The University was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London.
Since the University's inception, students and faculty have been recognized in fields ranging from the arts and sciences, to business, politics, and sports. Notable alumni and faculty include three U.W.I.(Mona) Nobel Laureates, sixty-one Rhodes Scholars, 18 current or former Caribbean Heads of Government, and an Olympic medalist. The university's cricket team previously participated in West Indian domestic cricket, but now participates as part of a Combined Campuses and Colleges team.
This university consists of three physical campuses at Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados and the Open Campus. 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[2] which has a physical presence and Heads of Sites in each of the 18 countries. There are International Programmes for universities in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico such as University of Toronto, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Queens University, Emory University, University of Massachusetts, the University of Guelph, Michigan State University, Yale University (medical electives), Florida State University, King's College, London and Universidad de Quintana Roo.
Contents
History[edit]
The university was founded in 1948, on the recommendation of the Asquith Commission[3] through its sub-committee on the West Indies chaired by Sir James Irvine.[4] 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.[5]
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.
Each of the physical campuses has faculties common to all of the campuses, such as Humanities & Education and Social Sciences. Cave Hill and Mona have the Faculty of Science & Technology while St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, houses the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Agriculture under the Faculty of Agriculture and Sciences. Cave Hill, Barbados and Mona, Jamaica and St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago has a full Faculty of Law. Both Mona, Jamaica, and St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, have the Faculty of Medicine. In 2008 Cave Hill accepted the first students at their Faculty of Medicine. Previously, they only accommodated students in the final two years in the medical program at their School of Medicine which was located at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. St. Augustine also has the Faculty of Engineering.
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 June 24, 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.
Current enrollment across the four campuses is 56,000.
Notable faculty and administrators[edit]
- Hilary Beckles: historian, vice-chancellor from May 2015.
- 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[6]
- Manley Elisha West: Professor of Pharmacology, Recipient of the Jamaican Order of Merit, co-inventor of Canasol[6]
- Orlando Patterson: John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University[7]
- Sam Mc Daniel:- B.Sc.UWI Mona Jamaica, M.A. (Biostatistics), Harvard University, Ph.D, Harvard University[8]
- Dr. Daniel Coore: Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at UWI Mona Campus [9]
- Dr. Patrick Hosein: Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at UWI St Augustine Campus [10]
Notable alumni[edit]
UWI graduates who are, or have been, heads of government:
- Kenny Anthony, 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
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
- Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political activist
- Shafimana Ueitele, Namibian lawyer
- Adalbert "Bert" Tucker, Belize River Valley Development Program (BELRIV)[11]
- Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize for Literature
See also[edit]
- University of the West Indies Museum
- University of Guyana
- University of Trinidad and Tobago
- University of Technology, Jamaica
- University of the French West Indies and Guiana
- Savacou, a sculpture on the Mona site
References[edit]
- ^ The University of the West Indies, A Quinquagenary Calendar 1948-1998,Douglas Hall,1998.Jamaica, The Press, University of the West Indies
- ^ "The University of the West Indies - Open Campus". Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^ http://www.bcn.cl/obtienearchivo?id=documentos/10221.1/29331/2/213787.pdf
- ^ Report of the West Indies Committee of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty June 1945. London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office
- ^ Brown, |Suzanne Francis (2006). Mona Past and Present: The History and Heritage of the Mona Campus, University of the West Indies p.10-11. University of the West Indies Press. ISBN 9789766401597.
- ^ a b M. E. West and J. Homi. "Cannabis as a medicine". Br. J. Anaesth (1996) 76(1): 167 doi:10.1093/bja/76.1.167-a
- ^ http://scholar.harvard.edu/patterson/home
- ^ http://www.mona.uwi.edu/mathematics/sam-mc-daniel
- ^ http://www.mona.uwi.edu/marcom/newsroom/entry/6333
- ^ https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/dcit/staff.asp
- ^ http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/98415
External links[edit]
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Campus websites[edit]
- 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[edit]
- 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
Coordinates: 18°00′11″N 76°44′40″W / 18.0029784°N 76.744566°W
- University of the West Indies
- Universities and colleges in Barbados
- Universities in Trinidad and Tobago
- Universities in Jamaica
- Universities and colleges in the Caribbean
- British West Indies
- Educational institutions established in 1948
- 1948 establishments in the British Empire
- Buildings and structures in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica