Tewarie: Good move, but more space needed

He is also calling for the immediate handing over of lands at Orange Grove to the campus. Speaking with Newsday yesterday, Tewarie said he agreed with Government that the expansion of tertiary education was a priority item, but cautioned, "we must not wait to address the problems which will come."

Tewarie identified four challenges which would immediately need attention as a result of the expansion.

"Now that we are solving the problem of access, the big issue is throughput, that is, how many students will benefit and be qualified to get a degree or diploma. We have to monitor that carefully."

The Pro-Vice Chancellor also said there was the issue of the quality of the education to be delivered. He reasoned, "There is no sense having large numbers of students exposed to education and there are no quality systems in place to ensure they get quality education."

The third challenge he said was one dealing with the capacity of the economy to absorb the graduates.

"Once the students begin to graduate in increased numbers every year, there needs to be some dove tailing, some investment and diversification strategy to deal with the output." And the fourth issue, according to Tewarie, was the re-training of teachers in the tertiary sector. He said while it will not be an immediate problem next year, certainly from 2007 and onward it would require attention.

In terms of additional accommodation to satisfy the increased number of students, Tewarie said the problem was clearly demonstrated at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Mt Hope. He pointed out that the faculty had "really top-class students which any university will want, and the facilities there are pretty poor in terms of support for a reasonable student life, maintenance and the size of the classrooms."

Tewarie said his administration was working with the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) to deal with the problems, but he reiterated that Government "has to sit with UWI to work out a framework for the development of medical professionals over the next ten years. "We have to put the infrastructure support in place, in terms of classrooms and labs, then we require some capital expenditure so the students can have access to the best possible place."

He said the challenge facing the faculty was also being experienced in other areas, "therefore Government needs to accompany the call for increased access and provision of additional places with the support for design and construction for building classrooms and labs, auditoria and residence halls." He said this year the issue will be high on the campus’s agenda when it meets with Government.

As for the Orange Grove lands which have been earmarked for the campus, Tewarie said it is now "absolutely necessary for us to be given those lands that have been promised to the university, but not yet deeded, because we may well have to build an entire graduate student and research campus on those lands." He said in that way, the St Augustine campus can be dedicated for the undergraduates."

He was uncertain about the delay in the handover, but insisted that the university needed the lands immediately to get plans in place for construction. However, Tewarie said he believed that when the system is opened up from January next year, most of the students would be absorbed by the College of Science Technology and Applied Arts of TT (COSTAATT), the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI) and the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

Tewarie said the St Augustine campus had achieved its target of accepting 4,000 students annually. He explained that the campus takes the best performing students from the 9,000 who had two A’ Level passes required for entrance to the university. He said the campus’s evening programme and distance learning catered for an additional number of students who would use the same facility, but at a different time. He said other tertiary institutions will have a larger pool to choose from. "That is, the best performing students at the O’ Levels, which could be about 30,000, plus the remainder of A’ Level students which the university did not accept."