B. Present Situation and Constraints

  1. General Needs to be addressed
    1. Access by students from the NCCs
      1. NCC under-representation: NCC enrolment on campus has fallen from 13.4% in 1960/61 (when the campus countries accounted for 66.5%) to 5.9% in 1997/98 (campus countries then accounted for 92.0%). The NCC countries contain 21.7% of the population of the contributing countries; by 1993 their nationals had acquired 9.0% of the undergraduate degrees awarded by the University and 14.9% of the certificates. These figures omit students obtaining degrees (BEds) entirely in the Bahamas or St Lucia, but they still serve to indicate a well-known problem.
      2. The case of the NW Caribbean: The problem of underrepresentation is compounded by a marked difference between the North-West and Eastern Caribbean countries. In 1997/98, the NW Caribbean countries, containing 10.5% of the relevant population, contributed only 1.3% of on-campus registrations; the Eastern Caribbean countries (11.2% of population) contributed 4.6%. A similar discrepancy can be found with the number of graduates: 2.0% as against 7.1%; and certificates awarded: 3.2% versus 11.6%.
      3. Sponsorship: Whereas the campus countries sponsor all their undergraduate students and many of their postgraduates, most NCCs set significant limits on the number of their students that will be sponsored to study on campus.
      4. Scholarships: The Office is attempting to obtain data on recent scholarship examinations, but the common perception is that no or very few University open scholarships or bursaries have been won by students from the NCCs. NCC governments used to benefit from a generous scholarship scheme funded by CIDA which has now come to an end.
      5. Comparative costs: The significance of the preceding points largely arises from the fact that fees for non-sponsored students from the NCCs, and the associated cost of living on campus, are such that most potential students see it as cheaper to apply to North American institutions (including the University of the Virgin Islands).
      6. Postgraduates: Exact figures are not yet available, but it is apparent that the general imbalances between campus and non-campus countries in enrolments are worse at the level of higher degrees.
      7. More open admissions: A frequently heard complaint is that the University is too rigid in its admission policies, especially as regards mature students. Many North American institutions will accept local Associate Degree qualifications so as to permit students to complete degrees in two years, while the UWI might recognize them only for matriculation, so that three years' further study is required to graduate. Many persons interviewed conceded that UWI degrees were rather more substantial than many of these North American offerings, but for many students and their employers a degree is a degree, and little incentive exists to prefer the longer and more arduous path to acquiring one.
      8. Law: A special case of rigidity exists with respect to the Law Faculty. The policy in this Faculty is that it is bound by the quota scheme for places in the Law Schools. The numbers allocated to each territory were agreed at the inception of the Law programme and have not been revised to take account of rapidly changing circumstances (notably in Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Turks and Caicos). Although a third Law School in the Bahamas is planned to take students from 1998, it is not yet clear what the implications for the quotas will be. (The recent Barnett report also notes that there are other difficulties here which complicate the situation: some NCCs have not taken up even their small quota in the Faculty.)
    2. Networking after graduation
      1. One issue here is the generally sorry state of the Guild of Graduates. Activities to mark the UWI's 50th anniversary have provided an occasion to revive the Guilds; the clear danger is that they will expire once the celebrations are over.
      2. A second concern is that the University, with the partial exception of the Medical Faculty, has virtually no mechanisms in the field to keep in touch with its graduates in their various professions or occupations. Its recent restructuring seems to have left alumni relations as a campus matter, instead of a central element in the attempt to preserve and enhance regional commitments. As until recently virtually the sole provider of highly trained expertise, one would think we would find it useful and politic to maintain links with our graduates who move into responsible positions in the various territories.
    3. University presence in the NCCs
      1. For most NCCs, the University was originally the Resident Tutor of the SCS. Then came an early quasi-distance education initiative, the Challenge scheme, followed by the spread throughout the region of teleconferenced-based distance education provided by the UWIDITE system, housed at the University Centres. In addition, the earlier Offices of University Services began activities of various kinds, including some directed at the local TLIs. This last concern has become the focus of the new TLIU.
      2. One issue here is to ensure that these various thrusts work together and complement, rather than compete with, the efforts being made by the local TLIs themselves. The University has committed itself to developing the TLIs, encouraging them to articulate with it, and offering to divest various programmes to them. In this context, it might seem that the University's efforts to produce distance education programmes in Preliminary Year sciences, in various certificates, and in some degrees promise competition rather than complementarity. Again, some programmes in the SCS run the risk of competing with local institutions - the Appraisal Report's suggestion that programming in the SCS should be co-ordinated with local plans remains pertinent. One suggestion here is that there should be formal representation from among the local TLIs on the SCS Advisory Committees - the Director is already working on implementing this proposal.
      3. A University is a lot more than a teaching machine. The discussions of its scholars, teachers, and students should produce a ferment of ideas, experimentation, and innovation. It is not, or at least ought not to be, "safe" or "politically correct". Society sets it up, not only to train for the future but also to be a counter-force, a gadfly in Socrates' metaphor. A prominent theme in our discussions has been the need to bring the cultural and intellectual atmosphere of a thriving university to the NCCs, to sponsor relevant activities, and to enhance the quality of public discussion.
    4. Libraries/Information: Library provision in the NCCs is generally weak. Resources are often spread among a public library system, the local TLIs, and the University Centre, though often there have been mutually beneficial arrangements to share what little there is. Information technology is beginning to make an important impact on this situation in several NCCs. The University's own DEC network of computers provides a valuable resource in this regard, and one hardly envisaged when it was originally proposed.
    5. Research relating to the NCCs
      1. Largely as a consequence of the underrepresentation of NCCs among postgraduate students, there is an underrepresentation of the NCCs in the research work undertaken at the University. To the extent that research informs teaching, the regional character of the UWI's programmes requires that extra attention be given to research in the NCCs.
      2. During the visits, teams heard of organisations to which US postgraduate students were attached; they heard of requests for data on tourism from North American institutions. The contrast was that the UWI had not encouraged students to undertake research with these bodies and that its staff did not seek help for their research projects.
    6. Technical assistance to public and private sectors in the NCCs: Another frequently heard issue concerns the needs of regional governments, and others, for the technical expertise and advice that the University can offer. While individuals are often asked to perform such services, there is no obvious way in which the University or its faculties can be approached to provide them. The region finds itself heavily dependent on extra-regional expertise in areas where truly applicable knowledge is mainly local.
    7. The University's physical plant for outreach
      1. The physical presence of the University in the NCCs is in most cases the University Centre. The Director, SCS, is undertaking a full survey of the needs for repairs and upgrading of what are in several cases rundown and unattractive sites. Suffice it to say here that on the one hand the needs of distance education for supplementary teaching space appear to have been neglected in the recent CDB Project and on the other that public relations and marketing are obviously affected by the sheer appearance of an institution.
      2. Another issue concerns access to programmes. One of the major reasons for expanding distance education was to reach students in their home country rather than requiring them to travel to a campus. Ironically one of the main problems now being encountered in our distance education is the requirement for students to attend a University Centre. In some territories, size (e.g., Belize) or geography and transportation services (e.g., Dominica) make it very difficult for students to attend regular sessions. In others, populations live on different islands, with even less opportunity to move easily from home to the Centre (e.g. Providenciales to Grand Turk, or Nevis to St Kitts).
  2. Constraints
    1. Commitment not to seek an increase in government funding to UWI
      1. The V-C's commitment to Council means that we cannot in general ask governments for funds to implement these plans. We have committed ourselves to raising a significant amount of money independently of governments, and to generating efficiency gains, thereby freeing up resources for redeployment.
      2. Given the comparative prosperity of the NCCs compared with Jamaica and, in several cases, Trinidad, it might be worth asking why many NCCs are reluctant to increase sponsorship of their students. Perhaps it would be better, however, to work on more extensive articulation arrangements for their TLIs on the understanding that their students would be supported if they wish to make use of the opportunities such articulation affords.
    2. Difficulty of arriving at consensual rationalization of tertiary education in the region: The University is complex and increasingly decentralised. The tertiary education sector is even more complex and variegated. Governments and regional agencies have pressures to face that do not always advance purely educational aspirations. So arriving at the necessary consensus and commitment to a seamless integrated tertiary sector is an extremely complex task. This plan itself runs the danger of being or of appearing to be a largely one-sided proclamation of what one of the partners would like to see, rather than a statement that all or most could call their own.
    3. Reluctance among staff at UWI to undertake new duties: A plan of action requires activity. The University has seen, in the distance education thrust, the difficulties of trying to get more out of staff without more incentives. It would be idle to recommend a set of new duties and responsibilities without identifying the resources needed to have the tasks performed.
  3. Possible responses to constraints
    1. Funding secured from CDB or other sources
      1. We cannot hope for success without providing funds for action. We cannot in general expect funds from the governments. So most of whatever funds are needed must come from other sources. These sources include the Capital Campaign and associated fundraising amongst alumni and the private sector; donor agencies; and financial institutions such as CDB, IADB, and the ECCB.
      2. The Capital Campaign and other such fundraising are largely focussed on the campuses and their needs. To the extent that a clear plan for allocating these funds to different heads exists, the BNCCDE will seek to argue for special allocations targetted to the NCCs for such things as postgraduate scholarships, funding for fieldwork, attachment of staff to TLIs etc. in the NCCs, etc. It cannot hope for more than token commitments here: one postgraduate scholarship per campus per year, say. The level of funding must be such that a capital base can sustain the regular expenditures. This means that careful consideration will have to be given to whether one scholarship or attachment a year, say, is worth the considerable funding that will be required. However, the existence of some large private sector institutions in the NCCs themselves may allow us to generate some regular commitments. The BNCCDE will work with BUS on the range of scholarships and other types of funding currently available and produce a feasible set of desirable new awards for the NCCs.
      3. Donor agencies (such as BDD, CIDA, EDF, USAID) will be approached systematically with an eye to ensuring some NCC element in relevant projects they sponsor in the region. The BNCCDE will begin meeting with these agencies to advertise the Plan and seek complementary support. For example, cultural promotions organized by the British Council or USIS could be more explicitly and extensively associated with the University and provision made for coverage of some NCCs on a regular basis.
      4. Most of our needs must, however, be financed on a different basis. One possibility, for at least part of the required development, is a follow-up loan and grant from the CDB, whose first project was directed to the expansion and improvement of the University's outreach.
    2. New approaches to funding of NCC students: Here the major suggestion is to endorse and encourage the rapid implementation of the proposal, made by Cave Hill in particular, for finding an alternative basis for the computation of fees for NCC students, focussing on the marginal cost of extra students rather than the full economic cost. It is important, here, that NCC government commitments are not lost, but it is also important that students from the NCCs should not find reason, in the charges they face, to distinguish between sponsored and non-sponsored students.
    3. Strengthening ACTI: ACTI has been a significant factor in the development of tertiary education, but it has remained chronically weak and underfunded. This has contributed to delay its work. The teams saw evidence that there is a growing consensus on crucial issues relating to articulation and the nature of Associate Degrees, for instance, which have not yet come to fruition in a clear public policy position. The plan therefore envisages the provision of a secretariat for ACTI to bring its current projects to closure and to lay the foundations for effective regional collaboration among TLIs.
    4. Acceptance of a comprehensive statement of regular responsibilities and the means of assessing their performance
      1. We need to produce a draft statement of the responsibilities of faculties, departments, academic staff, and administration with respect to all aspects of outreach to the NCCs. This statement must include methods for evaluating the worth of this activity, and suggestions to faculties etc. on how performance here should be rewarded in the assessment and promotions exercise and in other ways. It may specify that particular types of activity are to be regarded as "overtime" to be paid for separately.
      2. Of particular importance for the implementation of this plan is the reconsideration of the roles and responsibilities of Resident Tutors or Representatives. We make several suggestions for what they should do and what priorities should be among their myriad tasks. It is essential that clear statements are made on the nature of their duties, and ways of evaluating them agreed.
      3. At the campuses, we will encourage increased investment in the Instructional Development Units, whose work must be co-ordinated with training provided by the DEC, so that a multi-mode pedagogy becomes the norm.

Go to Background

Addressing needs

Country and faculty breakdown of proposals

Return to Home page.

Prepared June 4th, 1998.

URL http://www.uwichill.edu.bb/bnccde/docs/sponb.html

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