THE UNIVERSITY of The West Indies (UWI) may soon be producing certified reggae/dancehall producers and road managers.In a recent Reggae Studies Unit lecture on the Mona campus, St. Andrew at which Jeremy Harding was the guest speaker two weeks ago, head of the Reggae Studies Unit Professor, Carolyn Cooper, announced that the university is looking at implementing a degree programme in Entertainment and Cultural Enterprise Management in the near future.
Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner recently, Professor Cooper explained that they are aiming to implement the programme as soon as the next academic year if everything pans out.
"It is still in its developmental stages and is being fleshed out this year," she explained. "It is the brainchild of Kam-au Amen, a graduate of the Masters programme in Cultural Studies. It is his idea that the Reggae Studies Unit is developing on."
The programme, she added, would take the same three years that other undergraduate degrees take to complete and students would have to take courses from other faculties as well. "It will be in collaboration with the Department of Management Studies and the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC). There would be two streams; one for the Humanities and the other for the Social Sciences," Professor Cooper said.
To get into the programme prospective students would have to satisfy standard university entry requirements, some of which include work experience and a certain level of education.
"They would have to pass the university's matriculation requirements, but UWI has a system that allows mature applicants that have a certain amount of qualification and work experience in their field to enter," she said.
