The University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus is taking steps to expand the number of scholarships and funding available to postgraduate students in social sciences, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences Professor Troy Lorde has said.
He made the announcement as InterCaribbean Airways signed an agreement with the university on Thursday. The airline has pledged to provide scholarships for a new bachelor’s degree programme in aviation business administration which also includes a pilot’s licence.
“We know typically for Barbadian students, of course, their first degrees are funded by the Government of Barbados but a number of our master’s programmes are fee-based,” Lorde explained.
“What we basically want to explain to students is ways in which they can support the financing of their studies. We also intend to basically advertise the existing scholarships that are available for our students so that all may not have to seek external funding.”
Also announcing Open Week, a prelude to the faculty’s 50th-anniversary celebrations in 2025, Professor Lorde said one of the main events will be the launch of a new initiative aimed at increasing the number of donors and stakeholders who support students’ education.
“We are planning to have a launch of an initiative called ‘Connect’…. What we are doing is basically to try to strengthen the partnerships we have with current students [and] alumni, not just here in Barbados, [and] we also want to deepen our relationship with our stakeholders – for example, donors. But we also want to court potential donors, to give them the value proposition [of] the education of students, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels,” he said.
“During that initiative, we also want to thank the partners that we’ve had so far, who have supported the work of the faculty, either by providing scholarships, grant support, providing internships, and so forth for students, but who have at times provided grant funding to undertake research.”
The week of activities will also have a strong emphasis on educating prospective students on the current scholarships and other financial support avenues at their disposal.
Professor Lorde added: “The existing donors want to support the students here at the Cave Hill Campus. All the scholarships, of course, are not to students in the Faculty of Social Sciences, but I would say a significant number of them are, and we want then, to let students be aware that these exist.”
The Open Week, which runs from March 25 to March 28, will also include a fair to promote the undergraduate programmes to prospective students.
