Harris

The University of the West Indies (UWI) needs to identify non-governmental sources of funds to meet the demands of expanding enrolment and is looking to its alumni for help. This according to Professor E. Nigel Harris, vice-chancellor of the institution.

Professor Harris told a UWI Alumni Association (UWIAA) reception in New York last week that current enrolment has increased "more than a thousand fold from 33 in 1948 (when the UWI started as the University College of the West Indies) to almost 40,000 campus-based and an additional 20,000 in Distance Education and Continuing Studies programmes.

He revealed that many students of the UWI Centres across the region and Jamaica were finding it difficult to finance their tertiary education.

Professor Harris said facilities in some UWI faculties are stretched to their limits and that the university has had to find "creative ways of retaining a world-class facility to ensure the quality of the education and training that is the hallmark of the UWI."

Special plea

He noted that, while the UWI was making some headway in negotiations with government and private sector entities, the university "is making a special plea to a significant stakeholder group, our alumni, to ensure that, this enterprise can continue in the foreseeable future and beyond."