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University of the West Indies — news, coverage & facts — IJR

History

The university was founded in 1948, on the recommendation of the Asquith Commission through its sub-committee on the West Indies, chaired by Sir James Irvine. The Asquith Commission had been established in 1943 to review the provision of higher education in the British colonies. Initially in a special relationship with the University of London, the then University College of the West Indies (UCWI) was seated at Mona, about five miles from Kingston, Jamaica. The university was based at Gibraltar Camp, used by evacuated Gibraltarians during the war.

Seeking to address a need for medical care, the first faculty established a medical school. The foundation stone for a hospital was added in 1949, and the University College Hospital of the West Indies opened in 1953. On 18 January 1953, Sir Winston Churchill visited the hospital and unveiled a plaque in recognition of the contribution made by the government of the United Kingdom to the hospital. The hospital was renamed the University Hospital of the West Indies in 1967 when the university gained full university status. In addition to patient care, the hospital facilitates research and teaching, along with the Medical Services department of the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies.

The University College achieved independent university status in 1962. The St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad, formerly the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), was established in 1960, followed by a school established along University Row, at the Deep Water Harbour of Barbados in 1963, later seated at the present Cave Hill Campus in 1967. The Open Campus, University Centres, headed by a Resident Tutor, were established in each of the other 13 contributing territories thereafter.

In 1950, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, Queen Victoria's last surviving granddaughter, became the first Chancellor of 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 to 1960 and as Vice-Chancellor from 1960 to 1963. He was succeeded by Sir Philip Sherlock (a Jamaican and one of 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 in that year by Aston Zachariah Preston, a Jamaican, who died in office on 24 June 1986. The fifth Vice-Chancellor was Sir Alister McIntyre, who served from 1988 to 1998, followed by alumnus and Professor Emeritus Rex Nettleford, who served from 1998 to 2004. The current Vice-Chancellor is Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, who succeeded Professor E. Nigel Harris in May 2015.

The University of the West Indies Museum catalogues and exhibits some of the university's history.

Global initiatives

The University of the West Indies has initiated several international partnerships. In 2016, UWI and the Global Institute for Software Technology (GIST) established the UWI-China Institute for Information Technology. Starting in the summer of 2018, students in the programme on the Cave Hill and Mona campuses will travel to Suzhou, China for two years to study software engineering and Mandarin.

The UWI-SUNY Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development (CLSD) was established in 2017 on SUNY's Empire State campus in Manhattan. The centre is designed to assist the Commonwealth Caribbean in meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In addition to research and advocacy, plans were underway as of 2019 to offer a joint master's degree in sustainability and leadership.

In 2017, the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the UWI established the UNILAG-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies. The institute conducts research and offers a master's degree in African and Diaspora Studies.

Also in 2017, UWI and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to establish the Institute for Global Africa Affairs. The institute was launched in 2018 and will offer a joint master's degree in Global African Studies.

In 2019, Universidad de los Andes, commonly referred to as UNIANDES, and the UWI established the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development. The Alliance will focus on the development of joint academic programmes and collaborative research projects.

In 2020, UWI and the University of Havana inked an agreement to jointly establish the Institute for the Sustainable Development of the Caribbean. UWI Mona will lead the initiative from the UWI side, with the deans of the Faculty of Science and Technology and the dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences taking the lead.

In 2021 the Inter-American Development Bank decided to become a stakeholder of UWI under Cuban-American President Mauricio Claver-Carone as a public-private partnerships, [PPP).

Faculty of Medical Sciences

Prior to the establishment of a medical school in the Caribbean, most physicians were trained in the United Kingdom, with a smaller group trained in the United States. This was costly, not attuned to the specific needs of the communities the doctors would serve, and risked the newly minted physicians remaining in the countries they trained in.

The Faculty of Medical Sciences was the first faculty to be established in the then University College. This was because of the pressing need for more (locally trained) doctors to treat conditions such as tuberculosis, yaws, tetanus, typhoid, infant malnutrition, and illnesses related to diarrhea. The establishment of medical schools in the colonies was replicated in the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Rhodesia, and Uganda. The inaugural entering class of 1948 consisted of 33 students from across the Caribbean, selected from 600–800 applicants. As the university college was then affiliated with the University of London, the medical curriculum reflected the University of London's curriculum with the addition of preventive and tropical medicine. Degrees were awarded under the University of London until 1962, reflecting London's role in administering the programme and providing the teaching staff. In addition to the standard five-year course, a pre-course science year was required for students without adequate preparation. The University Hospital of the West Indies, an acute tertiary hospital, provided the initial context for clinical education.

Expansion of the capacity of the Faculty followed several steps. In addition to population growth, the exodus of medical graduates to North America, never to return, exacerbated the need to increase the output of doctors. In the 1960s, it was possible to complete the clinical clerkship element of training in Trinidad and Tobago (at the Port of Spain General Hospital), Barbados (at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Bridgetown), as well as in Jamaica. In 1989, the medical school at the St. Augustine campus opened. However, it adopted a problem-based approach rather than the 'traditional' existing curriculum at the Mona school. Mona, which had previously implemented curricular reforms based on World Health Organization recommendations to emphasize community health promotion and protection, and St. Augustine had different medical school curricula, although the graduates took the same qualifying exams. Moreover, St. Augustine's Faculty of Medical Sciences included not just a school of medicine but also schools of dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing, and pharmacy, necessitating some resource-sharing. In 2008, the clerkships in Barbados were fully developed into a medical school at the Cave Hill campus. Around the same time, the UWI School of Clinical Medicine and Research was established from an existing programme allowing clerkships to be undertaken in Nassau, under the direction of the St. Augustine campus. The School offers the final two years of the five-year programme.

Similar to the general training, specialist training was progressively made available through the UWI. For example, anaesthesia was initially provided by untrained physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, leading to high morbidity and mortality rates. Initially, physicians were sent overseas for a year of post-graduate training. While the Faculty was established in 1948, the one-year post-graduate diploma in anaesthetics did not begin until 1966 at the Mona campus. St. Augustine and Cave Hill added the diploma in 1976. However, Mona was already pursuing a four-year doctorate program in anaesthetics, first offered in 1974. Eventually, this more specialised degree (extended to include intensive care) was extended to the other two campuses in 1984, while the one-year programme was discontinued in 1994.

While improvements were being made to the training of physicians as anaesthesiologists, there continued to be a shortage of trained personnel in rural areas. In Jamaica, an initiative to train nurse anaesthetists started, with nurses first sent to the US and Cuba, followed by the establishment of the Jamaica School of Nurse Anaesthetists in 1981, which continues to this day (As of 2019) with the Ministry of Health. This is in addition to specialised additional training for nurses in intensive care, which began in 1969.

Two of the three faculties of medical sciences offer dentistry. The St. Augustine campus was the first to offer a dental school. It opened in 1989 as the first dental school in the Anglophone Caribbean. The inaugural class of roughly 20 students was mostly from Trinidad and Tobago, with a couple of students each from Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The initial curriculum was modeled on that found in the UK, with the intention to seek recognition from British authorities. It is possible to the exam for membership of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Edinburgh-based Royal College of Surgeons.

Starting in 2004, the medical programs in the Caribbean ceased to be accredited by the United Kingdom-based General Medical Council as the UK focused more on integration with Europe. UWI was a key player in the establishment of the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP). Despite differences in curriculum, the three UWI medical schools are accredited and currently certified with conditions. The dental school at St. Augustine is probationary accredited while the dental school at Mona has accreditation with conditions. The veterinarian medical school at St. Augustine is also accredited with conditions. Efforts are underway to align the curriculum and admission standards of the three medical schools.

Even with the expansion, the UWI medical schools are facing new competition. Many for-profit medical schools have been established in the Caribbean region, with the first established in Grenada in 1976. Generally, these schools cater to students from the United States, but they sometimes offer scholarships to local students, providing an alternative to UWI programs or going abroad for medical education to Canada, the United Kingdom, or the United States. The quality of these offshore medical schools differ, though the CAAM-HP accredits some.

The Faculty of Medicines has a research arm called the Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR), formerly the Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI). The CAIHR comprises the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, based on the Cave Hill Campus, and three units all based on the Mona Campus: the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, the Sickle Cell Unit and the Epidemiology Research Unit. Continuing medical education is provided in different ways among the various countries with the medical associations taking the lead in some countries and the medical schools in others.

Faculty of Law

Prior to the establishment of the Faculty of Law at the UWI, residents of the anglophone Caribbean would travel primarily to the United Kingdom to study. There, a prospective lawyer would join one of the Inns of Court, receiving lodging and training and undergoing examinations. The training focused on England's legal system and social context, which did not correspond to legal practice in the Caribbean. It was also expensive. For the legal profession in England, the influx of prospective lawyers from around the British Commonwealth was beginning to strain resources. Efforts were underway to limit international students in legal studies in England, which was another reason to establish legal training in the Caribbean.

The Faculty of Law was initially established in 1970 at the Cave Hill Campus, in Barbados, but the first year of the degree was available at each campus (and the University of Guyana in Guyana). This structure served, inter alia, to create a regional institution (the Faculty) and a regional identity within the profession. Incrementally, courses from the second and third year of the law programs were introduced at St. Augustine and Mona, allowing students to take more and more of the degree on those campuses rather than studying at Cave Hill. It is now possible to complete a law degree at each campus.

Following completion of the UWI law degree, graduates who intend to practice must complete a two-year practical professional training programme at one of three law schools in the Caribbean. The Eugene Dupuch Law School in The Bahamas usually is for citizens of the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica has allocated citizens from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica, Montserrat, and St. Kitts and Nevis. The Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago serves Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The three schools were established by the Caribbean Council of Legal Education. Ironically, despite the Faculty of Law being founded in Barbados, that country does not have a law school, though one has been suggested.

The first law students, beginning studies in October 1970, consisted of 24 students in Jamaica, nineteen in Trinidad and Tobago, 35 in Barbados, and thirteen in Guyana. Two years later, almost 300 students were enrolled in the Faculty. The first graduates entered the profession in 1975.

The institutions control access to the Faculty of Law and Law Schools. However, costs can vary depending on whether the applicant's country has paid contributory grants to the Faculty or the School. Not all countries did. Therefore, applicants from non-contributing countries would be considered after those from contributing countries, and their fees would be higher.

Notable faculty

M. H. Ahmad: professor of biotechnology and director of the Biotechnology Centre at Mona campus between 1990 and 2011.

Helen Asemota: professor of biochemistry and biotechnology

Courtenay Bartholomew: the first lecturer and then Professor of Medicine at UWI St Augustine.

V. C. R. A. C. Crabbe: Professor of Legislative Drafting, formerly justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, and first Electoral Commissioner of Ghana.

Leith Dunn Head of the Mona Unit

Albert K Fiadjoe: Distinguished emeritus professor of public law.

Elsa Goveia: first female professor of UCWI and noted pioneer in West Indian historiography.

François Jackman: Ambassador to the UN and China, founded Chinese study institute at Barbados campus

Bridget Jones (1935–2000): pioneering Literature and language professor from 1964 to 1982, who developed curricula to include Afro-, Anglo- and Franco-Caribbean writers in university syllabai at UWI and in Britain and Ireland.

Dorothy King: head of the Microbiology Department of the medical faculty from 1973 to 2001.

Elsa Leo-Rhynie: Principal of the Mona campus.

William Arthur Lewis: economist, lecturer, author and joint winner of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics of 1979.

Albert Belville Lockhart: Consultant and Ophthalmologist, Recipient of the Jamaican Order of Merit, co-inventor of Canasol.

Evelyn O'Callaghan: Professor of West Indian literature, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education.

Orlando Patterson: John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.

George Maxwell Richards: Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal of the St. Augustine campus.

Maureen Warner-Lewis: Professor Emerita of African-Caribbean Language and Orature; Gold Musgrave Medal winner in 2009.

Manley Elisha West: Professor of Pharmacology, recipient of the Jamaican Order of Merit, co-inventor of Canasol.

J. H. Parry :Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University

Raymond Gosling

Richard D'Aeth: President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge University

Michael B. Bracken

Gordon Shirley pro vice chancellor and principal

Mervyn C. Alleyne: Professor of Linguistics of the Mona and St. Augustine campi.

Salikoko Mufwene: Lecturer of Linguistics of the Mona campus between 1980 and 1981.

Notable alumni

The university has produced students who have excelled in a number of disciplines, such as the arts and sciences, business, politics, and sports. Notable alumni and faculty include three Nobel Laureates, 72 Rhodes Scholars, three Gates Cambridge Scholarship winners, one Emmy award winner, one Man Booker Prize winner, one American Book Award winner, multiple Commonwealth Short Story Prize winners, 18 current or former Caribbean Heads of Government, Olympic gold medallists, among other award winners. The university's cricket team previously participated in West Indian domestic cricket, but now participates as part of a Combined Campuses and Colleges team.

UWI graduates who are, or have been, heads of government:

Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana

Vance Amory, former premier of Nevis

Kenny Anthony, former prime minister of St. Lucia

Owen Arthur, former prime minister of Barbados

Dean Barrow, former prime minister of Belize

Heather Doram, activist and educator who designed Antigua and Barbuda's national costume

Denzil Douglas, former prime minister of St. Kitts & Nevis

Rufus Ewing, premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands

Bruce Golding, former prime minister of Jamaica

Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines

David A. Granger, president of Guyana

Timothy Harris, prime minister of St. Kitts & Nevis

Andrew Holness, prime minister of Jamaica

Patrick Manning, former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago

Hubert Minnis, prime minister of The Bahamas

Keith Mitchell, prime minister of Grenada

Joseph Walcott Parry, former premier of Nevis

P. J. Patterson, former prime minister of Jamaica

Kamla Persad-Bissessar, first female prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago

Philip J. Pierre, prime minister of Saint Lucia

Keith Rowley, 7th prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago

Lloyd Erskine Sandiford, former prime minister of Barbados

Kennedy A. Simmonds, former prime minister of St. Kitts & Nevis

Orlando Smith, chief minister of the British Virgin Islands

Freundel Stuart, former prime minister of Barbados

Tillman Thomas, former prime minister of Grenada

David Thompson, former prime minister of Barbados

Graduates in other fields:

Dame Anita Allen, president of the Court of Appeal of The Bahamas

Faris Al-Rawi, former attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago

Pamela Coke-Hamilton Director of International Trade for UNCTAD

Merceline Dahl-Regis, Bahamian physician, former Chief Medical Officer of the Bahamas

Edwidge Danticat, Haitian poet and writer

Tracy Davidson-Celestine, former political leader of the Tobago Council of the People's National Movement and Trinidad and Tobago Ambassador to Costa Rica

Kwame Dawes, Ghanaian poet and critic, and Professor of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Erna Brodber, Jamaican writer, sociologist and social activist

Kevin Fenton, President of the United Kingdom Faculty of Public Health

Dennis Francis, Trinidad and Tobago diplomat, President of the United Nations General Assembly

Donald J. Harris, emeritus professor of Stanford University

Ishion Hutchinson, Award-winning poet and professor

Renatha Francis, Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida

Karen E. Nelson, Jamaican-American microbiologist

Merle Collins, Grenadian poet

Mercedes Richards, Jamaican astrophysics and astronomy professor

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Honorary Fellow

Adam Stewart (business executive), Honorary Graduate

Stephen Ames, Professional Golfer, Recipient of the Uwi Vice Chancellor's Award

Kirani James, Olympic Gold Medallist

Usain Bolt, Olympic Gold Medallist

Alia Atkinson, Jamaican former competitive swimmer and Olympian

Rita Marley, Jamaican reggae singer

Marcia Griffiths, Jamaican reggae singer

Beres Hammond, Jamaican reggae singer

Alison Hinds, Bajan soca singer

Fae Ellington, Jamaican media personality and lecturer

Wendy Fitzwilliam, Miss Universe 1998

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Olympic Gold Medallist sprinter

Marcia Gilbert-Roberts, Jamaican bureaucrat and diplomat who served as Jamaican Ambassador to several European countries including Germany, Spain and France

Burton P. C. Hall, judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and former Chief Justice of The Bahamas

Lisa Hanna, Jamaican Miss World 1993

Guy Harvey, Jamaican wildlife artist

Marlon James, Jamaican-born winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize

Joshua Johnson, Trinidadian chess player

Jerelle Joseph, academic and scientist

Giselle Laronde, Trinidadian Miss World 1986

Joan Latchman, director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre

Ianthea Leigertwood-Octave, former judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court

Charles W. Mills, Jamaican philosopher

Dolliver Nelson, member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

Hansle Parchment, Jamaican Olympic Gold Medallist

Kris Rampersad, Trinidad and Tobago journalist, author and cultural advocate

Shorna-Kay Richards, Jamaican diplomat

Nafesha Richardson, women rights' advocate and climate activist from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Patrick Lipton Robinson, Jamaican judge of the International Court of Justice

Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political activist

Richard Sealy, Barbadian Tourism Minister

Olive Senior, Jamaican novelist and writer

Joy Spence, Jamaican master blender

Antoinette Tidjani Alou, Jamaican-Nigerien lecturer in Comparative Literature at Abdou Moumouni University

Shafimana Ueitele, Namibian lawyer

Lennox Honychurch, Dominican historian and Author

M. NourbeSe Philip, Canadian poet

Derek Walcott, Saint Lucian recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature

Francis Belle, Barbadian lawyer and judge

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