TT UNIVERSITY: 2004

Trinidad and Tobago will have its own University next year, separate from the University of the West Indies. It is an idea that goes back as many as 47 years when the first Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams, advised of Government’s intention to establish a University of Trinidad and Tobago.

The idea had not been heard of again until the Manning administration indicated recently that it intended to create a University of Trinidad and Tobago. Last Thursday, Minister of Science and Technology, Senator Danny Montano, announced that Government had formally endorsed the establishment of the University, which would focus, initially, on science, engineering and the environment. Dr Williams’ surprise announcement in November of 1957 at the Shipping Association’s Annual Dinner had triggered concern and adverse comment by many, who felt that the Trinidad and Tobago Government should have concentrated instead on an expansion of the University of West Indies (UWI).

Interestingly, while this country apparently shelved the idea of a State created and funded University, which would be independent of UWI, Guyana (then British Guiana) went ahead in 1962, five years after Williams’ announcement, and set up the University of Guyana. It would be followed later by Jamaica’s establishment of the University of Technology. And not unlike Jamaica’s, a Trinidad and Tobago concern in deciding on the University, was the cost of accessing University education at UWI. The annual cost per student, pursuing at the University of the West Indies the discipline afforded at Jamaica’s University of Technology, is TT$61,000. At the Jamaican University the annual cost per student is TT$23,000.

This is comparable with the cost — TT$20,000 —at Trinidad and Tobago’s Institute of Technology which (the Institute) will form part of the planned University of TT. Montano’s argument that the setting up of the TT University was considered to be cheaper than that of expanding UWI is important. In turn, he has provided figures which demonstrated that the University of the West Indies was physically incapable of coping with today’s demand for entrance. Applications for programmes in science, medical science, engineering and agriculture at UWI for the 2003/2004 Academic year totalled some 2,400, but only 1,226 were registered. This represents both a shortfall of approximately 50 percent, and the continuing increasing demand by young Caricom citizens for the accessing of University education.

The demand has to be met. Government recognises that the cost factor — University fees, accommodation and other expenses — would make it difficult for many young Trinidadians and Tobagonians to seek tertiary education overseas in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Its decision to establish the University of Trinidad and Tobago will result, in large part, in the meeting of the demand for studies in science, engineering and the environment, and with it the understandable and commendable desire of citizens to upgrade their efficiency. There will be benefits both nationally and regionally, but we hope that those planning the programmes will take into account the real needs of the community and be conscious of the achievement of practical and realistic goals where the development of people is at the centre of everything.