It takes pressure to make a diamond

This was the figure quoted on Thursday by Pro Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, St Augustine campus, Professor Brian Copeland, as he welcomed the new students for 2016 The UWI Matriculation and Welcome Ceremony at The UWI Sport and Physical Education Centre.

And as he congratulated the first year students, Copeland also warned them that while this important step would be exciting and challenging, it may also be frightening, but, it would ultimately be better.

“When you are faced with those inevitable challenges, just remember that it takes a bit of pressure to make a diamond, and The UWI is about making diamonds in The Caribbean populace,” he said.

Copeland said that education was meant to ensure that every citizen possessed basic physical and mental survival skills. It also served to empower persons for the job market to allow them to achieve a decent standard of living.

He said given today’s worrying economic state, education must ensure that society maintained and developed methods and products that improved upon the current state while ensuring that the existence of future societies was not compromised.

This, Copeland said, required nurturing the creative and innovative talents and skills of the people.

He said while The UWI would do all that was required to ensure that their academic delivery was in keeping with their education agenda, the students also had their part to play to be able to rise to the challenge of a job market that did not currently make the most of their qualifications. He added that regional nations were not significant net earners of foreign exchange.

“I challenge you to make your contribution to society by working to change this abysmal state of affairs.Do as your counterparts in other lands have done and apply those creative and innovative talents and skills to devise products, processes, systems and methods that the world has never seen before,” Copeland urged.

He told the students that they had opportunities to connect and create a whole new Caribbean experience.