Representatives from 14 tertiary institutions on Tuesday sealed an agreement that will bring the schools under one umbrella.

The University of Technology (UTech) and 13 other institutions signed a declaration of intent during a ceremony at the Hilton Kingston hotel in New Kingston.

The initiative, dubbed 'University of Jamaica', will seek to establish a university consortium of networked institutions to improve Jamaica's tertiary education sector.

Polytechnic system

The move will also better prepare Jamaica's tertiary organisations to handle increased global competition.

Edward Seaga, pro-chancellor at UTech, said the consortium would be modelled off the London polytechnic system with a central entity but with several other branches with their own identity.

"So that it is not one in which there is a greater right to take advantage of a lesser right," he said.

He noted that some 22 schools were approached. However, only 14 have since agreed to ratify the project.

Karen Hewitt-Kennedy, principal of the Portmore Community College (PCC) in St Catherine, said the institution came on board because of the proposed benefits.

"We hope that this new system will facilitate easy transfer from one sector of the education system to the next," she said. "A student from PCC with an associate degree will be able to easily matriculate to UTech to complete that degree."

Government subvention

Hewitt-Kennedy further said a reduction in government subvention had forced institutions to gain economies of scale by pooling human and financial resources.

"While we retain our identity and individual brands, we will be able to share our particular strengths," she said.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Andrew Holness said the collaboration would, in effect, fulfil the objectives of the Government in expanding access to and the quality of tertiary education in Jamaica.

He further urged local educational leaders to seek to convert Jamaica's tertiary education sector into an active export market.

"Jamaica has the best tertiary system in the Caribbean and we have to market that as an asset. We have the human resources to do it; we have the physical infrastructure and Jamaica is probably the most metropolitan of all the Caribbean islands," Holness said.

Institutions that signed agreement

Creative Productions Training Centre/Media Technology Institute

Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

Knox Community College

The University of Technology

Portmore Community College

Brown's Town Community College

Moneague College

Jamaica Institute of Management

University College of the Caribbean

Montego Bay Community College

Sam Sharpe Teachers' College

Shortwood Teachers' College

GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sports

Bethlehem Moravian College