Not at war!

PRIME MINISTER FREUNDEL STUART has insisted that his Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Government is not  at war with the University of the  West Indies (UWI).
Stuart said the party remained committed not only  to that institution’s success,  but to tertiary education  in Barbados generally.
But, he said, as this country’s leader, the reality is that funding education has become very expensive, with the subvention to the university more than doubling over an eight-year period, and it could not be business as usual.
His declaration at the DLP’s 58th annual general conference yesterday came days after the Budget announcement of  $42 million cuts in transfers  to the UWI and the elimination of Government-paid tuition fees, a week after UWI Cave Hill Campus principal Sir Hilary Beckles’ criticism of Government’s failure to pay its close to $200 million debt to the university, and a day after the principal denied a suggestion that a commission which he chaired on reforming tertiary education recommended that students pay tuition fees.