Education ministry boosts ties with UWI

| 30/01/2019
CNS Local Life
UWI CFO Andrea McNish (second from right) at cheque handover with education ministry officials (L-R) Cetonya Cacho, Juliana O’Connor-Connolly and Philip Scott (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

(CNS Local Life): Ministry of Education officials recently handed over $2.3 million to the University of West Indies (UWI), to bring its contribution up to date while also discussing with UWI chief financial officer Andrea McNish the funding of the Cayman Islands Open Campus site and how UWI can support the ministry’s vision for tertiary education.

Minister for Education Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said she is keen to strengthen the relationship with UWI to ensure that the Government is seeing increased value for money, a ministry press release stated.

The Cayman Open Campus was established in 2006 and is one of 42 site locations in the region serving 17 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean.

“The Cayman Islands Government’s relationship with the University of the West Indies dates back to the 1960s, and since then our country has benefitted from numerous Caymanian students who have received a world-class education from internationally respected professors and lecturers, all embedded in a Caribbean experience,” said O’Connor-Connolly.

“It is my hope to further solidify those ties but also come to an agreement on terms that more fairly reflect Cayman’s current and future participation in the open campus model.”

As a Contributing Territory, Caymanian students receive a number of benefits from UWI including:

  1. guaranteed admission spaces provided they meet the admission standards;
  2. a 40% discount on tuition fees to sponsored students attending any of the three campus sites in Jamaica, Trinidad or Barbados;
  3. access to pursue courses in medicine, which might not otherwise be available due to the competitive entry requirements at other institutions;
  4. access for medical students to get the relevant clinical internships through attachment to University Hospital West Indies (UHWI) or to Jamaican hospitals affiliated to UHWI; and
  5. access to UHWI for post graduate studies for medical students.

Benefits of the Open Campus include access to degrees and other qualifications at reasonable tuition fees for students without having to go off-island to study (US$300 per undergraduate course; US$450 per postgraduate course), the ministry said in the release.

Discussions are expected to continue at UWI’s technical advisory committee meeting set for next month in Antigua and Barbuda.

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Category: Education

Comments (2)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    God help us … here we go again. Trying to look like hero’s. Our own needs these funds. Damn we got a mess. She should give them her money.

  2. Anonymous says:

    It sounds as if she’s contributed her own money. Was it budgeted or money distributed at a whim?