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University of the West Indies

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University of the West Indies
File:UWI Coat.jpg
MottoOriens Ex Occidente Lux
("Western Light Rising")
TypePublic
Established1948
Vice-ChancellorProf. E. Nigel Harris
Academic staff
1000
Students36,417
Location
*Mona, Jamaica
*Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago,
*Cave Hill, Barbados
Websitewww.uwi.edu

The University of the West Indies, also known as UWI, is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 16 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos. Each of these countries is either a member of the Commonwealth of Nations or a British Overseas Territory. The aim of the university is to help "unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth" in the West Indies, thus allowing for improved regional autonomy. The University was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London.

The university consists of three major campuses at Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados. There are satellite campuses in Mount Hope, Trinidad and Tobago and Montego Bay, Jamaica, and a Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management in Nassau, Bahamas. Resident tutors are also present in non-campus contributing territories, together with branches of the UWI School of Continuing Studies.

History

The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the West Indies (UCWI) at Mona in Jamaica, in special relationship with the University of London. It achieved independent university status in 1962. The St Augustine Campus in Trinidad, formerly the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), was started in 1960 and the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados was founded in 1963. In addition, University Centres, headed by a Resident Tutor, are located in each of the other 13 contributing countries.

Each campus has faculties common to all the campuses, such as Humanities & Education and Social Sciences. Cave Hill and Mona have the Faculty of Pure & Applied Sciences while St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, houses the School of Natural Sciences and the School of Agriculture under the Faculty of Agriculture and Sciences. Cave Hill, Barbados, has a full Faculty of Law, so that undergraduates in Mona and St. Augustine who complete first year on their respective campuses must go on to Cave Hill. Both Mona, Jamaica, and St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, have the Faculty of Medicine. In 2008 Cave Hill accepted the first students at their Faculty of Medicine. Previously, they only accomodated students in the final two years in the medical program at their School of Medicine which was located at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. St. Augustine also has the Faculty of Engineering.

In 1950, HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, Queen Victoria's last surviving granddaughter, became the first Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (then 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 1958-1960 and as Vice-Chancellor from 1960-1963. He was succeeded by Sir Philip Sherlock (a Jamaican and one of the 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 by Dr Aston Zachariah Preston, a Jamaican, who died in office on June 24, 1986 having served from 1974.

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 E. Nigel Harris.

Current enrollment across the three campuses is 36,000.

Professors Emeriti include Sir George Alleyne, Mervyn C. Alleyne, Sir Fitzroy Richard Augier, Compton D. Bourne, Wilfred R. Chan, Daphne R. Douglas, Sir John Simon Rawson Golding, Douglas Gordon Hawkins Hall, Keith Laurence, Woodville Marshall, Mervyn Morris, Sir Kenneth Stewart, and Maureen Warner-Lewis, among others.

Notable alumni

Eight of the regional Prime Ministers are graduates of the UWI. In addition, former UWI Pro-Vice Chancellor and St. Augustine Campus Principal, Professor Emeritus George Maxwell Richards is the current President of Trinidad and Tobago, and alumnus, former UWI Pro-Vice Chancellor and Mona Principal, Professor Emeritus Kenneth O. Hall was Governor-General of Jamaica.

See also

Campus Websites

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