Plan your work and work your plan, Copeland tells undergrads

“I am not saying that of the top of my head. It is a known fact.

It has been researched. You are your own best teacher. So when you come to university, unlike your high school where people are particularly trained for education, some of us staff are not trained in education,” he said.

In his first interaction as Campus Principal with the incoming students at their orientation on Friday in the auditorium of The UWI Sports and Physical Education Centre St Augustine Campus, Copeland said that though all the UWI staff may not all be trained in education, they were all experts in their fields ready to impart their knowledge.

Referring to the theme of this year’s orientation “Direct your story,” he said, “the little part of directing your own story is taking charge of your own learning.

Find out what needs to be done and do it well.” Declaring that he does not want mediocre graduates, but top class, he said, “You plan your work, and you work your plan.” Directing their story, he said, also means that when they leave the UWI and that story becomes history, they still have other stories to write in spaces which are still to be created, and of which they will be a part.

Urging them not to restrict themselves as they write their stories and to develop creative skill, he said, “so when you meet a challenge you never saw before, you can respond to it with an accomplished position as a graduate of the UWI.” As a parent of two children who have also gone through the university system, Copeland said, “You have to focus.

That is number one. The focus is on the job you came to do.

That is to study so that you can get your degree.” He also advised that they challenge their lecturers. Nobody knows everything and theories have been shaken over the years, he said adding, “You have the sharpest minds on the island right now because you are young and you are smart.” Noting that sometime graduates would have obtained first degrees they may not work with initially, he said, “No problem. It is still knowledge. It is still learning.

It will be of value to you later on. You are building yourself as you go along.” Welcoming the new batch of undergraduates, Copeland said they were now part of the premier university in the Caribbean, and one of the largest universities in the world encompassing 45,000 students across Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus with campuses across the region.