The UWI sets up Corporate Investment Committee
Regional Headquarters, Jamaica, Monday, July 6, 2020. Five years ago, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) approved as one of its strategic goals, the alignment of its operations with regional and global private sectors. The intention was to promote regional economic development specifically to roll out a road map to take the institution to bond and equity markets with bankable projects.
To guide this initiative, The UWI has just established a ‘Corporate Investment Committee’. This Committee, which resides within the Office of the Vice-Chancellor will serve as an advisory team for the University’s participation in large-scale private sector investments.
Leading the effort to restructure The UWI’s financial model is Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, who is an Economic Historian, and well known in corporate Caribbean as a long-serving Director of Sagicor Financial Corporation Limited, former Director of Cable and Wireless, and Sagicor Jamaica Ltd, and current Chairman of the Caribbean Examinations Council. Working alongside him is Pro Vice-Chancellor, Academic-Industry Partnerships and Planning and Professor of International Business, Densil Williams.
The newly formed Committee is composed of three Co-Chairs, two members with long experience from the private sector and a UWI expert in business and management. The Committee also includes other members with expertise in business, finance and entrepreneurship from the private sector, and The UWI.
The purpose of the Committee is to provide business intelligence for projects to be taken to market and to guide the formulation of business plans and decision-making models at the University.
One of the projects before the Committee is a proposal by the St Augustine Campus, which is currently preparing a venture to establish a for-profit global medical school to take to the bond market. The proposal has been presented to and supported by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and all relevant university statutory committees, save for University Council, which will be held in two weeks.
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About The UWI
For over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and an Open Campus. As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); The UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies; the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ); The UWI-University of Havana Centre for Sustainable Development; The UWI-Coventry Institute for Industry-Academic Partnership with the University of Coventry and the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research with the University of Glasgow.
The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport.
As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. The world’s most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education, has ranked The UWI among the top 600 universities in the world for 2019 and 2020, and the 40 best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean for 2018 and 2019. The UWI has been the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.
(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)
