COMMENTARY - What's up at University of the West Indies (UWI)
published:
Friday | February 22, 2008
Wilberne Persaud, Financial Gleaner Columnist
The site of the first lecture given by Professor Cedric Hassall at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, then the University College, in 1948, is marked by this sign. - File
The Mona Association of Postgraduate Students statement that the "University of the West Indies (UWI) has regarded itself as the leading institution in the area of research, (that it) brags about its numerous publications in top international journals and research relevant to our West Indian and wider global societies" is a bit disingenuous.
UWI is the foremost research institution in the Caribbean - including French, Dutch and Spanish-speaking areas. Caveat: I cannot speak authoritatively about Cuban research facilities, universities and otherwise.
But, historically, and some would argue, surprisingly, given levels of under-funding particularly at Mona in the last two decades, these claims are in great measure true.
Apart from that however, the postgraduate students raise pertinent issues. Commendable. It's been a long time since the hyperactive late 1960s that West Indian university students have addressed any but the most self-interested and sometimes self-defeating issues in either public or semi-public forum.
Students at Mona have come out against, for instance, problems with catering facilities, or survey courses taking them away from their 'core' interest; or courses and exams being too difficult; or lecturers' presentations being too complex or advanced to follow - as absurd and self-defeating as the latter may seem.
Heartening
Students generally never tend to be shy of dealing with their immediate and personal problems. So for me to read their concerned, reasoned analysis set out for public discourse in the Sunday Gleaner, February 10, is heartening.
Their engagement is essential if solutions are to be found. But before continuing here's a concern: The Gleaner's subhead to the article reads, "The following article was submitted on behalf of the Mona Association of Postgraduate Students (MAPS)." Does this mean the association engaged counsel, did someone or a group write in support of the association? Or is it that 'on behalf of' in the subhead should simply read 'by'? One hopes it is the latter.
The students cite part of the university's modern or perhaps I should say recent, mission statement which "speaks to unlocking the full potential of the region through high-quality teaching and research."
The notion of education for development articulated in this way arose from the Alistair McIntyre period of the institution's leadership which initiated a clear change to a public relations focus of the university's 'public diplomacy' — a procedure which, using expenditure as a metric, one would have to admit, perhaps achieved its zenith under the Kenneth Hall administration of the Mona campus.
McIntyre took the position of leadership as vice chancellor to implement the policy of separation of campus and vice chancellery, the 'Centre' - a policy decision which I thought unwise but which appeared politically inevitable to those who guided the university at the time.
This decision in itself is in part responsible for some of the negative elements the postgraduate students highlight.
ALARMING EARLY STATISTICS
But let us look at the institution's history and its need, if we should borrow the PR phrase: 'to unlock the full potential'.
In 1945, when the Irvine Committee of the British Colonial Office reported on the need for and a mechanism to create an institution of tertiary education in the region and the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) was conceived, they reported some alarming statistics.
They found that in 1943 there were: 109 West Indians in British universities; 250 in those of North America; 1,200 pupils were qualified through higher school certificate and school certificate examinations to proceed to higher education, while in the past 10 years, 610 students had sat for London external degrees.
Dire need
These numbers represented all the West Indian colonies. We need not subject them to statistical analysis to grasp the picture. There was, as West Indians from as early as the 1800s knew, dire need for a university.
In colonial North America, the Pilgrim Fathers founded Harvard University 16 years after landing at Plymouth.
In Jamaica and the West Indies it took hundreds of years. This reflected the nature of the colonial enterprise generally and in particular that of colonies of exploitation. Many other factors account for the timing and nature of the UCWI created in 1948 which we cannot explore here.
The Irvine Committee grasped the need to create a 'West Indian' graduate. This would be someone aware of the historical situation and cultural background, and responsive to local conditions.
Sparrow's much later "Dan is the Man in the Van" speaking of primary education makes the same point: "If mi head was bright a would be a damn fool." At the end of their research, fact-finding travel in the region and deliberations, Irvine unanimously recommended "Establishment of a single University of the West Indies at the earliest possible date. The first step should be the foundation of a University College which, in order to establish its academic standards and win public confidence and esteem should work for the most part for the external degrees of a University of repute."
The college would teach basic subjects for degrees in arts and ccience, include a faculty of medicine and provide the centre for "a department of extra-mural studies through which its influence would be projected into all the West Indian colonies."
I should point out that the young gifted outspoken highly accomplished anti-colonial Eric Williams was entirely opposed to this conception of a university for the West Indies. I figure though, that he would not have been opposed to Irvine's ideas.
