SIR HILARY BECKLES has made the brave announcement that the Cave Hill Campus, of which he is Principal, is in for a “complete” overhaul. He wants to make the university “more relevant to the 21st century educational needs”.It is a bold and courageous step by the university principal, who in making the announcement admitted that it may well see the closure of some departments.In essence, Sir Hilary’s aim is to ensure that the theoretical knowledge which the campus has in computer science and physics and related areas, can now serve the private sector in terms of the application of that knowledge to industrial development.This initiative has not come a day too soon, since it is the application in a practical manner of theoretical knowledge which has shown itself to be of major interest to businessmen and entrepreneurs everywhere. Only yesterday, the international news out of California indicated that scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have created a synthetic cell that can survive and reproduce itself according to an artificial DNA sequence, promising designer genomes with which researchers can produce sophisticated artificial organisms.We are told that this discovery which the pundits say is akin to the creation of “new life” may herald the start of an industrial revolution rooted in biology, which may see the development of bacteria which may produce a substitute fuel for oil or perhaps an organism which can clean up oil spills.Further, new and precise medical remedies for some of the currently problematic diseases may emerge. This is the kind of result which emerges when knowledge is applied in a practical way, and the region is not short of the intellectual talent among our students for this sort of venture.This island does not have large companies as in other countries, which have their own research and development departments engaged in the business of applying theoretical research and knowledge in a practical way, and Sir Hilary’s view that the university should move in this direction deserves the support of all Barbadians interested in seeing this country moving in sync with what it means to be a university in the 21st Century.We do not necessarily share Sir Hilary’s view that his timeline of two years is realistic, but the effort must be made to push the fusion of theory and practice because that is the modern approach being utilized by other universities and research institutes elsewhere.The principal’s emphasis in his speech was focused on combining scientific disciplines.But there is also scope for the combination of non scientific disciplines in such a manner as to develop new concepts which may also produce new businesses, or new ways of doing business. Bill Gates and his colleagues developed Microsoft by the application of science to business and Facebook was created by marring computer science to sociology.Federal Express emerged out of a student’s thesis in which he looked at new ways of applying the business of aviation with the speedy delivery of parcels and letters.Sir Hilary’s views are visionary and timely and students at Cave Hill should be inspired by the thinking of their principal as indicative of the new path which the campus must take, if it is to meet the task of moving this island and region forward.
