Page 32 - Self-Study Report for Institutional Accreditation

Brief Overview of The University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies (The UWI) was described by Sherlock and Nettleford(1990)as‘aplaceforlight,libertyandlearning’. Theyfurthernotedthat the “... founding of the University, like the founding of the West Indian people, was a product of the positive response of the West Indian people to the challenge of change and deprivation” (Sherlock and Nettleford, 1990, p. 3). The first office of the University College of the West Indies was established by Royal Charter and opened on 1st February, 1947 by Thomas Taylor in Kingston, Jamaica (Sherlock and Nettleford, 1990) as a College of the University of London. The University of the West Indies (The UWI) became an independent University in 1962 by a second Royal Charter. The UWI is the oldest regional institution of higher education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and one of only two regional universities in the world. The University is supported by (16) Anglophone Caribbean countries. As a regional institution, it is committed to the development of the people of the region through training, research, the provision of advisory services to governments and the private sector, and the establishment of collaborative links with other regional and extra- regional institutions.
The UWI has had eight Vice-Chancellors. Sir William Arthur Lewis was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University (1960-1963) as an independent entity. Sir Lewis served as the first economic advisor (1959-1963) to Ghana following its independence. He was a St. Lucian who served earlier as the first West Indian President of the UCWI from 1958-1960 and was later awarded a Nobel Prize in 1979 for Economics. He was succeeded by Sir Philip Sherlock, a Jamaican who served from 1963 through to 1969. Sir Sherlock was the first Director of Extra Mural Studies, Vice Principal and Acting Principal of the University College of the West Indies, the founding Principal of the St. Augustine Campus and was responsible for the establishment of the Faculty of Engineering. The third Vice-Chancellor was Sir Roy Marshall, a Barbadian who served from 1969 through 1974. Sir Marshall a lawyer by profession was instrumental in the establishment of the position of Pro
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