University of the West Indies

University of the West Indies
Motto: Oriens Ex Occidente Lux
("Western Light Rising")
Established: 1948
Type: Public
Vice-Chancellor: Prof. E. Nigel Harris
Faculty: 1000
Students: 36,417
Location: *Mona, Jamaica
*Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago,
*Cave Hill, Barbados
Website: www.uwi.edu

The University of the West Indies, also known as UWI, is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 16 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. All of these countries are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. The aim of the university is to help "unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth" in the West Indies, thus allowing for improved regional autonomy. The University was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London.

The university consists of four major campuses at Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados. There are satellite campuses in Mount Hope, Trinidad and Tobago and at Western Jamaica Campus in Jamaica, and a Center for Hotel and Tourism Management in Nassau, Bahamas. Resident tutors are also present in non-campus contributing territories, together with branches of the UWI School of Continuing Studies.

Established in 1948, the university will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2008. The university was founded as the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) at Mona in Jamaica, in special relationship with the University of London. It achieved independent university status in 1962. The St Augustine Campus in Trinidad, formerly the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), was started in 1960 and the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados was founded in 1963. In addition, University Centres, headed by a Resident Tutor, are located in each of the other 13 contributing countries. (The University of Guyana was established and incorporated in April 1963. UG was established to cater to the needs of Guyanese who could not afford to study in foreign universities, including the UWI, to which Guyana was subscribing large sums of money annually. It was felt that UWI could not provide the necessary service to Guyana since only a small number of Guyanese could afford to enroll at Mona and St. Augustine.)

Each campus has faculties common to all the campuses, such as Humanities & Education and Social Sciences. Cave Hill and Mona have the Faculty of Pure & Applied Sciences while St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, houses the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Agriculture under the Faculty of Agriculture and Sciences. Cave Hill, Barbados, has a full Faculty of Law, so that undergraduates in Mona and St. Augustine who complete first year on their respective campuses must go on to Cave Hill. Both Mona, Jamaica, and St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, have the Faculty of Medicine. St. Augustine also has the Faculty of Engineering.

In 1950, HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, Queen Victoria's last surviving granddaughter, became the first Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (then the University College of the West Indies).

Sir William Arthur Lewis was the first Vice-Chancellor under the UWI’s independent Charter. A native of St Lucia, he served as the first West Indian Principal of the UCWI from 1958-1960 and as Vice-Chancellor from 1960-1963. He was succeeded by Sir Philip Sherlock (a Jamaican and one of the UWI’s founding fathers) who served as Vice-Chancellor from 1963 to 1969. Sir Roy Marshall, a Barbadian was the next Vice-Chancellor serving from 1969 to 1974. He was succeeded by The Hon Dr Aston Zachariah Preston, a Jamaican, who died in office on June 24, 1986 having served from 1974.

The fifth Vice-Chancellor was The Hon Sir Alister McIntyre who served from 1988 to 1998 followed by alumnus and Professor Emeritus the Hon Rex Nettleford who served from 1998 to 2004. The current Vice-Chancellor is Professor E. Nigel Harris.

Current enrollment across the three campuses is 36,000.

Professors Emeriti include Sir George Alleyne, Mervyn C. Alleyne, Sir Fitzroy Richard Augier, Compton D. Bourne, Wilfred R. Chan, Daphne R. Douglas, Sir John Simon Rawson Golding, Douglas Gordon Hawkins Hall, Keith Laurence, Woodville Marshall, Mervyn Morris, Sir Kenneth Stewart, and Maureen Warner-Lewis, among others.

Contents

Notable alumni

Eight of the regional Prime Ministers are graduates of the UWI. In addition, former UWI Pro-Vice Chancellor and St. Augustine Campus Principal, Professor Emeritus George Maxwell Richards is the current President of Trinidad and Tobago, and alumnus, former UWI Pro-Vice Chancellor and Mona Principal, Professor Emeritus Kenneth O. Hall is the current Governor-General of Jamaica.

See also

External links

Campus Websites

Other Links

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