Montano: New university by next year

THE PROPOSED University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) could be running as early as next year at the Wallerfield Light Industrial Park, Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education, Danny Montano announced yesterday.

He was speaking at a ceremony to distribute letters of appointment to members of the UTT steering committee at his St James office. Montano said that  by September he would bring legislation to Parliament to establish an Accreditation Council to regulate degree-granting tertiary institutions. “By January 2004 we will have the Accreditation Council running, which fits in with our time frame to establish the university. We want to have the University of Trinidad and Tobago up and running by 2004 or 2005.”

Despite the institution being national, Montano said it should look regionally and extra-regionally to source its faculty staff. He said: “The Ambassador of the Russian Federation suggested they have a tremendous number of scientists and lecturers wandering around the former Soviet Union who speak English. So don’t confine your thinking to the United States, Britain and Canada.” Saying that in the next few years this country was likely to see a shortfall in engineers and engineering technicians of 2,000 persons, Montano said the UTT would begin its focus on training for science and technology, to be followed later by arts and humanities and other subjects.

The UTT’s emphasis on science and technology was underlined by most members of the steering committee having had careers in science or engineering. The committee is headed by engineer Prof Ken Julien. It includes University of the West Indies (UWI) science/engineering academics Prof Baldwin Mootoo, Prof Dyer Narinesingh, Dr John Agard, Dr Winston Lewis, Dr Clement Imbert, and Prof John Spence (retired). From industry come bpTT CEO Robert Riley, ISPAT managing director John Kuriyan, Industrial Gases Ltd CEO Lingford Carrabom, BHP Billiton’s Nicholas DeVerteuil, and PCS Nitrogen managing director Ian Welch. 

Representing government are permanent secretaries of  the Ministry of Energy Andrew Jupiter, Ministry of Planning Victoria Mendez-Charles, Ministry of Education Thecla Reyes and Ministry of Science Jennifer Sampson, plus Tobago House of Assembly administrator Peter O’Neil. Other members are: Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Technology manager Harris Khan, Ixanos Ltd chairman St Clair King, TT Chamber of Commerce president David O’Brien, SWWTU president general Michael Annisette, an SWTTU representative, UWI Institute of Business director Dr Rolph Balgobin, COSTAATT chairman Trevor Boopsingh, and attorney John Jeremie. As he presented members with their letters of appointment, Montano said their job was to come up with proposals for the UTT programme.

He said: “Will we have indigenous programmes or franchise programmes from abroad? You will have to determine how far and wide the programmes should be.” Montano asked that the committee give him an interim report within four months to take to Cabinet. On the issue of funding, Montano asked the committee to comment upon his proposal that private companies be allowed tax concessions for any funding of the UTT. He also repeated the Government’s view that no qualified person should be denied education because of poverty. Montano justified the UTT by saying that developed countries had one university for every 500,000 to 600,000 persons, so that statistically Trinidad and Tobago should have two or even three universities. He said that while UWI, St Augustine annually takes in 8,700 students, the country currently has 19,000 students in form five, and moreso 26,000 students in form one. He urged: “We have to do more to provide opportunities for our students.”

Justifying the UTT’s emphasis on science and technology, he said he had met the head of Lockheed Corporation, USA, who had said in the next decade that company alone would require 100,000 engineering technicians and welders. Acknowledging private institutions offered bachelors and masters degrees in sought-after subjects, Montano said: “There are other programmes the country needs desperately but are not being provided.” An example of this, he said, was the recently-established Faculty of Geo-Sciences at UWI, which he lamented could only take in 15 of the 150 applicants. Montano assured that UTT was not competing with UWI, noting: “UWI has a vital role to play. We’d like to see UWI fulfill its mandate.” Ken Julien said: “We have a wide and deep enough expertise to meet the challenge head on.”