Page 74 - Self-Study Report for Institutional Accreditation

The role of the BDU is vital as the Open Campus seeks to expand its regional and international reach, as well as assisting the Campus to enhance its financial viability and sustainability. Since its inception, the BDU has established contracts and partnerships with several key organisations including the World Bank (WB), Organisation of American States (OAS), Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CDPC), Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), and Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI). The staffing of this Unit is discussed in Chapter 7.
Learner Demographics
In the SAR (2012), the Campus reported the number of online students for the academic year 2010/2011 as 6,181. Since that time the student numbers have fluctuated depending on regional and to some extent global economic challenges. In addition, environmental factors such as hurricanes have significantly affected student intake in some academic years, for example, Hurricane Maria in 2017. Albeit, the Campus online student numbers have not dropped below 5,500 during the review period.
The face-to-face student numbers has also been affected by similar challenges.
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