About the Open Campus - Its Antecedents
The Extra-Mural Department/School of Continuing Studies (SCS)
The UWI was established in 1948 and had the foresight to create an extra-mural department within the University to provide the Caribbean community with essential outreach services. This was seen as an integral part of the very concept of being a regional university.
The UWI was designed to serve an archipelago of 14 countries which were divided by the Caribbean Sea from Belize in the West to Trinidad and Tobago in the south – a distance of 3,000 km. The Leeward and Windward Islands, by comparison, are fairly close in proximity, however, they are over 1,600 km from Jamaica, which further compounds the challenges of distance.
Since those early days, the Extra-Mural Department of UWI has evolved into the School of Continuing Studies (SCS), which has used its extensive extra-mural experience to offer direct local and regional responses to the need for continuing knowledge, skills, professional development, research, and cultural identity throughout the Caribbean.
The UWI Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC)
As part of this integral outreach to the Caribbean countries that it serves, the University also sought to expand its ability to improve its distance education services.
Distance teaching is not new to the Caribbean or to the UWI, as far back as the 1940s, people in the region were studying for various qualifications through correspondence courses, mainly from England.
In the 1970s, UWI introduced the Challenge Examination Scheme, a new concept in distance education. Challenge was soon absorbed by the University Distance Teaching Enterprise (UWIDITE), which further evolved into the University Distance Teaching Centre (UWIDEC) in 1996.
All of these developments in the application of modern telecommunications technology further fuelled the expansion of the University's services in education, outreach and public service in the region.
The Open Campus
This background serves to put in context the way in which the University has come full circle through the establishment of an Open Campus, which has unified all of its outreach, teaching and public service areas.
With modern Internet technologies, courses and programmes, trained e-tutors, and over 60 years of teaching and research experience, the Open Campus delivers higher education services to empower more Caribbean people every day.
Already, over 20,000 students are currently enrolled in our existing programmes/courses across the Caribbean, with innovative prospects growing all the time.
The Open Campus is the online campus in The UWI system, with the same rigour and high educational standards that The University of the West Indies is known for regionally and internationally.
Thirteen years since its establishment, the Open Campus has cemented itself as part of the modern architecture of The UWI. Its reach and accessibility is unmatched and its reaccreditation in 2019 by the Barbados Accreditation Council for seven years is a seal of its academic excellence.
The Global Campus
The UWI Global Campus, (formerly The UWI Open Campus) is a strategic initiative by The University of the West Indies, established to expand access to high-quality higher education across the Caribbean Region. The emergence of the Global Campus on August 1, 2023, formally initiates The UWI's transformation to a next-generation digital institution delivering its online programmes and courses to global markets.
The UWI Global Campus like its predecessor is dedicated to providing accessible, flexible, and high-quality continuing and professional education, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and courses to meet the changing educational and training needs of the underserved communities across the Caribbean region enabling them to achieve their full potential and make a positive impact on society at large. With digital technologies and innovative pedagogical approaches, the Global Campus strives to break down barriers to education, promoting lifelong learning and ongoing personal and professional development.
The purpose of the Global Campus is to open doors to life-changing learning wherever you are.
