By Omar Anderson, Gleaner WriterIN A bid to bridge the gap created by a $793 million budgetary shortfall, the University of the West Indies (UWI) is planning
to sell for up to $1.8 million annually, spaces within its Faculty of Medical Sciences to qualified non-Caribbean nationals and Caribbean students who fell outside its usual quota.
Medical students of Caribbean countries contributing to the UWI normally pay $204,268 for each year of study.
The university is also looking to cut staff, however, deputy principal Joe Pereira emphasised yesterday this option was far down the institution's rung of cost-containment alternatives.
He said there's also the contemplation to sell spaces within the Faculty of Law, but discussions surrounding this move were in an embryonic stage.
The decision, Mr. Pereira said, to sell spaces to medical students was fashioned from what obtains at the St. Augustine campus in Trinidad, where the Government pays 80 per cent of the economic cost of only 35 medical students for each year of study. All other students outside this batch, including non-Trinidadians, have to foot the full cost of their study at St. Augustine.
"One of the things we are looking at is bringing in medical students at the full economic cost," Mr. Pereira said. "That means at Mona we will have to take in additional students and increase the medical facilities."
For the current academic year, the medical faculty at Mona received 692 applications but only had space for 138. Of this number, 95 applicants were admitted, with another 33 not responding. Six applicants refused selection while another four asked for deferrals until the next academic year.
"The medical faculty turns down a couple hundred students but this doesn't mean they are not qualified," Mr. Pereira said, adding that medical applicants to whom the university sells places "must satisfy matriculation entry requirements."
He added that the university will be starting with a modest number of students in the next academic year, "but we will increase this number for a couple years."
ALTERNATIVE FUNDS
As part of the university's cost-containment activities, the deputy principal said four faculties at Mona have been instructed to see where they can reduce costs and generate more income. As a result, he said the university is considering to leave certain posts vacant, while reducing overtime and weekend work.
"We have not yet decided whether we are going to fill vacant positions or switch persons from full-time to temporary positions," he told The Gleaner.
He added that the university was targeting staff represented by the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT), as that was where "the heaviest payroll cost is."
