UWI to start massive construction

Revealing that the University of the West Indies (UWI) was set to soon embark on a “a massive construction” drive to better accommodate campus students and personnel, Pro Vice Chancellor at UWI, Dr Bhoe Tewarie yesterday said they were in the midst of currently extending the Humanities Building, as a first step. The disclosure was made at a press conference held to discuss present and future plans for the campus and to highlight some aspects of the university’s strategic plan 2002 - 2007, at the office of the campus principal at UWI, St Augustine yesterday. He also revealed that construction plans entailed three phase’s, with the first and second phase earmarked for the construction of a residential complex which can easily hold about 500 students each; and phase three which will be a six-storey building housing classrooms, laboratory rooms and additional administration space for staff.

Vice Chancellor of UWI, Professor Rex Nettleford, attested to the fact that the university “was not standing still” in its quest to develop the region, and to continue making tertiary education accessible to a wider cross-section of society. Claiming that over the last five years UWI had strained its “capacity to provide more qualified young people with the opportunity to access higher education,” Nettleford quickly pointed out that despite the economic constraints encountered, the campus has been able to achieve expansion without sacrificing academic standards. Stating that this year’s record intake of the total enrolment of students for the new academic year 2003/2004 was fast approaching 30,000, as compared to previous years, he argued that “the university has been adding steadily to the pool of trained people.” He boasted that in the last eight years, UWI had produced over 27,000 new graduates with degrees, and that the annual output of first degree graduates was now about 4,000 persons per year. Adding that distance education programmes would soon be expanded to hold more persons, Nettleford said the programmes at campus currently service 3,000 students in 16 countries.