The University of the West Indies (UWI) is looking to save some $30 billion in costs over the next two years.
This was disclosed by Pro-Vice Chancellor for Planning Professor Densil Williams who also told a news briefing at the Cave Hill Campus this afternoon that the UWI will at the same time focus on generating new streams of revenue.
Speaking during an event to officially announce that the regional tertiary learning institution had again moved up in the world rankings for universities, Professor Williams said this cost-savings and revenue generation target will be achieved through the implementation of strategies to preserve the financial health of the UWI.
“Already, a number of campuses have been on that path doing this…and what we will see over the next two years is a cost-saving that is going to stabilize the financial position of the university. So in all aspects, we are doing things on both sides. We are doing things on the revenue side; we are doing things on the cost side to make sure that by the end of the strategic planning period, we have a financially viable university,” he said.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, who has been at the forefront of efforts to enhance the international profile of the UWI, expects the latest ranking that has pushed it from number five in the world in 2018 to number four in 2019, to bring greater regional and global funding.
Sir Hilary is also anticipating that the university would attract even more foreign students and overseas academics as a result of the new ranking by the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) ranking agency which has consolidated the UWI at number one in the Caribbean and promoted it from three to two in Latin America.
In identifying the working relations established with a long list of universities from around the world as a significant contributor to the UWI’s rise in the ranking, the Vice Chancellor told reporters he expects that these partnerships along with current and future investments from regional governments will financially secure the university in the next two to three years.
“The strategy is that we are going to prepare a global market for our income; and in that regard the ranking will be of great significance…because there are students and their families and their governments that invest resources only in high-ranked universities,” he said.
“The higher-ranked you are, the greater your chance of receiving these funds from these individual families and governments.
He noted that governments across the region are now looking at innovative and creative ways to empower and consolidate the university.
The Vice Chancellor pointed to the Eastern Caribbean where the Antigua and Barbuda government has just invested in a new Five Islands campus; St Vincent and the Grenadines’ with a new higher education complex to open in January; and Grenada with its gift of 80 acres of land to the UWI on which to build.
Sir Hilary disclosed that the UWI was working with CARICOM leaders on how best they could turn over full ownership of state lands occupied by the campuses to the university indefinitely.
He is suggesting to the governments that these lands be placed in a trust to ensure that the income generated would continue to benefit the country for future generations.
Sir Hilary explained that this means the university would not be able to sell the land, but can use it as a tool for investment or collateral.
He believes that if the university could get the 3,000 acres of prime land across the Caribbean which is likely to be available to it by transfer and vest these properties in the trust, this could boost the value of the UWI’s assets by a billion dollars.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
