Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
THE MONA campus at the University of the West Indies is pinning its hopes on the Government to skilfully re-negotiate a 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) to save the institution from financial hardship.
Yesterday, deputy principal Joe Pereira, told The Gleaner that the institution was concerned at the latest turn of events. He disclosed that Professor Hillary Beckles, principal of the Cave Hill campus in Barbados, recently completed a soon-to-be released study on the liberalisation of education under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, and how this would affect the regional institution.
On Sunday, The Gleaner reported that the Government was hastily seeking to prevent the UWI from facing legal sanctions, based on the GATS.
Under the agreement, signed by Dr. Paul Robertson, the then foreign affairs and foreign trade minister, Jamaica said it would allow offshore educational institutions to set up shop here.
Additionally, the agreement also binds Jamaica to provide equal financial subsidies to these offshore institutions as well as national ones. However, the UWI is not a national institution, thereby jeopardising Government's annual subvention to the campus.
In the current financial year, the Government offered the UWI a $6 billion subsidy. Government also pays 65 per cent of the economic cost of each student's tuition fee.
On Sunday, Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson admitted that although the Government signed the GATS, it never planned to give equal financial assistance to offshore and local tertiary institutions.
TECHNICAL CLARIFICATION
As such, she added that the administration is seeking to enter a "technical clarification" to be placed before the WTO next month.
It was on this last-ditch effort yesterday that Professor Pereira said the university was banking.
"We are expecting Government to find a way to clarify it (agreement)," he said. "We are pinning our hopes on the Government."
But there could be a hitch, as Mrs. Henry-Wilson said the agreement did not cover regional institutions. As such, analysts say, if offshore institutions successfully challenge the legality of Government's subvention to the UWI, students would have to pick up the full tab of their education there.
In a worst-case scenario, Government would have to pay all institutions similar subventions, whether foreign or local.
