Barbados Today

Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Professor Eudine Barriteau, has welcomed Government’s promise of financial support for low income Barbadian students, as announced by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler in his budget presentation last evening.

Professor Barriteau noted that since the introduction of the new tuition fee policy by Government last August requiring Barbadian students to pay 20 per cent of the cost of their academic programmes, enrolment numbers had plummeted to levels which threaten the institution’s viability.

“We at Cave Hill are very heartened by this pledge of support which, no doubt, will enable women and men to experience a university level of training and rigour that will help them attain higher levels of personal achievement and promote greater civic engagement,” Professor Barriteau stated.

She added: “I am particularly delighted that the support comes at the beginning of my tenure as principal as it correlates with our own assiduous and ongoing efforts at Cave Hill to encourage current and prospective students not to abandon this important journey of their personal development.

“What we have been witnessing in recent times is a very troubling feature where thousands of citizens who should be availing themselves of opportunities to sharpen their analytical skills, develop their research capacity, and maximize educational opportunities to enhance themselves and their families were, instead, abandoning their dreams because of an inability or unwillingness to finance their studies.”

The UWI principal invited former students who withdrew from UWI for financial reasons in the past year to an advisory session tomorrow evening at the Roy Marshall Teaching Complex at 5:30 p.m.

“We want to let them know that if their reasons for withdrawing at this juncture are purely financial, we have a range of options that can assist them in resuming their studies in the upcoming academic year,” she said.