As the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) new top administrator, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles has a vision and a message for the Caribbean’s leading tertiary educational institution and the region itself.
And the UWI Vice Chancellor summarised the strategy in a straightforward way: as the island nations and coastal states confront their major economic and social challenges, the university must play a key role in the area’s economic resucitation and future social development.
“We are in difficulty and I believe the university has a critical role to play,” he told the BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY during a conversation in New York.
The reality of the region’s economic plight is crystal clear, he said: the eastern Caribbean region is lagging behing its neighbours in the Western Hemisphere as they seek to get over the ravages of the great economic recession that hit in 2007-2008.
“My focus is on the entire Caribbean and one of the issues concerning me is increasing poverty in the Caribean,” said Sir Hilary. “This is a serious matter. We are approaching 40 to 50 years of nationhood and poverty is on the increase. That is one.
Most sluggish
“The second issue concerning me is that in the English-speaking parts of the Caribbean, we are showing signs of being the most sluggish to recover from this recession.
“The reason why the English-speaking Caribbean is the most sluggish part of the hemisphere in recovering from this recession is because we have the lowest investment in higher education. And we are seeing the effects on economic recovery.”
What’s really needed, the Vice Chancellor insist, is a rising number of young people going into higher education and more money being spent on research and innovation.
“You need a culture of innovation driven by research to create new industries and create new products and to revamp the tourism plant. Unless you have the culture of research, you are not going to get the economic stimulation you need to do things differently,” said Sir Hilary, who recently was the principal of the UWI’s Cave Hill Campus.
“We have come to a crossroads in the English-speaking Caribbean and unless we invest more in innovation, research, direct professional training and in higher education in general, the countries would be left behind, he warned.
“If we pull back at this time when we need to go forward we are going to have severe future consequences. It’s a serious systemic challenge for the Caribbean.”
That’s why when he made a presentation to CARICOM Heads at their recent summit in Barbados, Sir Hilary outlined a comprehensive strategy for the development of the university and appealed for the region’s help. As he saw it, UWI must be “more effectively re-alligned” with Caribbean economies.
“We have been helping all of the economies of the region over time but we need a much more systemic re-alignment with the region’s economies,” he said. “The top priority for me as Vice Chancellor is helping the Caribbean out of the economic recession. How can we get the university to facilitate economic recovery?”
That focus isn’t difficult to figure out.
Generate more wealth
“If you don’t have economic recovery you are not going to have the resources for public health, cultural institutions, social life and education. We need to generate more wealth and we have to demonstrate that the university is behind the entrepreneurial class in creating more wealth generating entrepreneurship, innovation through research and application,” he said.
That’s why he wanted the green light and the active assistance of CARICOM leaders to help UWI arrange a summit of the leaders of Caribbean universities and the global donor community. It may be held next year.
“Our goal is to have the universities of the region meet with all of the international donor and development agences that are funding Caribbean development so that the universities and development objectives can be re-aligned,” explained the Vice Chancellor.
Next is a plan to transform UWI from being a regional educational institution with campuses in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados into a global body with a significant academic presence in China, the United States and Brazil. Sir Hilary got the approval of the CARICOM Heads.
“CARICOM has endorsed both of these requests from the UWI,” he pointed out. “This is going to be our top mandate, the globalisation of the university.”
Sir Hilary was in New York to meet with Carl McCall, chairman of the board of trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY), and with Nancy Zimpher, the SUNY chancellor, to discuss plans for the New York portion of the plan.
Sir Hilary showered praise on Barbados’ private sector for financing much of the modernisation of the Cave Hill Campus and he cited several firms, including Sagicor, Sol and its chairman Sir Kyffin Simpson, Republic Bank Barbados and its predecessor Barbados National Bank, CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank and other major sources of funds that aided the expansion of UWI in Barbados.
But there is more to UWI’s development initiative. The Vice Chancellor said an important strategy was the transformation of many of the eastern Caribbean’s community colleges into university colleges, a move designed to boost access to higher education while containing operating costs.