The UWI launches pioneering global online school

The University of the West Indies (UWI) has taken a giant step towards exporting Caribbean knowledge and expertise to the world through expertly designed university curricula. The university has unveiled a groundbreaking initiative, the first-ever global online graduate business school, the International School of Development and Justice (ISDJ, to equip future leaders with the skills and knowledge necessary to advance the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This pioneering initiative, located within The UWI Global Campus, offers a series of one-year online master’s programmes focused on crucial global issues such as poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability, gender equality, educational access, and public health.

The project – first presented to financial partners, including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Invest, as “an entrepreneurial project designed to export Caribbean knowledge to the world” — is designed to mobilise the intellectual achievements of the Caribbean, to package its intellectual and cultural creativity into academic curricula and to export it to the world, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, The UWI’s vice-chancellor, told the hybrid launch event.

“We are saying to the world, come in your thousands,” said Sir Hilary, who described the ISDJ as a strategic response to the Caribbean’s historical and future challenges. Currently, there are students from 80 countries enrolled in The UWI programme and the vice-chancellor said he aimed to significantly increase this number through the ISDJ.

Significantly, the ISDJ represents a departure from traditional university structures, being UWI’s first inter-campus major financial corporation, owned by all five campuses and designed to operate with the efficiency and governance of a private company. This innovative model is expected to attract substantial global funding and expand UWI’s international footprint.

Elizabeth Robberechts, lead investment officer at IDB Invest, described the initiative as a hub for knowledge exchange, research, and the development of best practices, specifically oriented towards achieving the SDGs. She said it would inspire a new generation of leaders dedicated to addressing the global challenges encapsulated in the 17 SDGs.

“The impact of ISDJ will be profound and far-reaching. It will not only influence the Caribbean and Latin American regions but will also serve as a model for global education in sustainable development,” the IDB Invest official said. “Through research, training, and advocacy, the school will contribute significantly to the global discourse on development and justice, offering solutions that are informed by local realities yet have global applicability.”

The launch event was also attended by Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Trinidad and Tobago’s minister of education, who visualised the ISDJ as an institution that will shape a more equitable world, from which the Caribbean would benefit.

“Who better to champion the training of professionals globally in these areas?” Gadsby-Dolly asked, as she stressed the authentic perspective that The UWI faculty can bring to global issues, given the region’s vulnerability to climate change.

“For the sake of our progeny [and] the Caribbean, we must do all that we possibly can to succeed in raising up a generation of leaders that collectively value human development over economic growth and operate from a standpoint of social, ecological, gender, and economic justice,” she said.