C. Addressing Needs

  1. Increasing Access
    1. Access to Matriculation requirements
      1. Given our existing matriculation and other entry requirements, and given the secondary school system, it is necessary to provide "access" courses of various sorts. This has been done successfully in the campus countries by the SCS. This provision will be extended throughout the NCCs by the SCS working in conjunction, not in competition, with the TLIs and other local providers.
      2. There is scope for a DE component in some of this work. We have to recognize different target audiences. For the natural sciences, the audience is largely secondary school students and those who have recently left secondary school. For such persons, the DEC intranet could provide a feasible solution to their need for expert tuition in the sciences and mathematics. We have a small base in work that has been done on the UWI Preliminary Year, and on Internet versions of some Physics courses. The SCS will sponsor a project to extend this material, in modularized form, to cover topics that are reasonably frequent in the various Associate Degrees in the region, in the full 'A' level, in CAPE (if it survives), and to offer joint programmes with these TLIs and secondary schools.
      3. Closely related to this is the need for strengthening mathematical and statistical understanding among potential and actual students. Here again, good DE and Internet materials offer a particularly helpful way of tapping comparatively scarce pedagogical skills. As these modules reach out to cover material in various UWI courses, extensive discussions will be needed to promote rationalization of provision here between the campuses and the DEC.
      4. English proficiency is in the same boat as mathematical literacy. The welcome decision to adopt DE for the new Foundation Courses, including the replacement for Use of English, provides the DEC with an opportunity to demonstrate the efficiencies to be found in region-wide provision. The SCS should quickly take the lead in promoting remedial and preparatory DE courses geared to this and the other Foundation courses.
      5. The SCS intends to pay more attention to providing a credit system of some sort for its various offerings. An earlier consultant had recommended that the University examine the use of continuing education units (CEUs) in the US as a model for what the SCS might do. While not intended as parallel to academic credit, such a system will make it easier for the University to weigh up SCS courses for purposes of matriculation and advanced standing.
      6. At some point, Strategy Committee, informed by careful investigations by BNCCDE and BUS, should be asked whether we should move to more open entrance in general. More urgently, consideration will be given to spelling out more clearly and reminding faculties of the "mature" student entry route.
    2. Articulation with TLIs
      1. The number and variety of articulation arrangements facilitated by the TLIU in its brief history can fairly be said to be one of the success stories of this Board. We can confidently expect more of these arrangements over the lifetime of this plan. As the University becomes more familiar with new developments in the TLIs, we can look forward to initiatives from the University, rather than simply from the TLIs themselves. We can expect this, not only from the faculties but also from the SCS, as it reviews its various offerings and seeks their wider and more efficient delivery.
      2. So far, most agreements have been limited to articulation and franchising. Articulation permits the TLI to teach its own programme, and seeks only to ensure that it provides whatever may be needed to continue work at the University. Franchising is a matter of the TLI teaching a University programme, with considerable University monitoring and control. With the new tourism programme, the University has begun to work with joint degrees. This may become a more extensive practice and its potentialities and also its problems should be a major focus of research by the University in the coming years.
      3. In the next few years we will begin to consider how to move beyond franchising to full divestment of some programmes. This is one of the aims proposed by the Strategic Plan. It will require attention to institutional development (#6.3) and the fuller implementation of accreditation mechanisms throughout the region (#6.8).
    3. Strengthening of TLIs
      1. Here we will work to extend the scope of staff attachments, in both directions. We propose to undertake a small number of operations specifically targetted in the light of articulation needs and priorities for response to the NCCs. Given the three campuses, it might then be possible to target somewhere in Belize to work mainly with Mona; SALCC/ASC with Cave Hill; and another TLI to work mainly with St Augustine. These operations will require clear Memoranda of Agreement, that others can adopt as they see them working. Funding needs here will include: travel, subsistence, replacement staff in some cases. We need to find a way to recognize input from the host institution's staff.
      2. A second approach is through targetted postgraduate programmes. There are already plans for work with Teachers' Colleges as an extension of the Mona JBTE/Alberta project. The visiting teams often heard of similar needs, in agriculture and engineering, for example, and also of various costly programmes being mounted by North American providers. We must explore non-standard approaches: use of weekends, summer schools, as well as the Internet for delivery. The TLIU is working on a detailed needs assessment of TLI staff, upon which two or three specific projects will be prepared for funding by CIDA or other agencies. Given the generous funding associated with the Lome IV Cariforum project, we should consider a special marketing campaign among TLIs for the second intake.
      3. A further crucial aspect of institutional development concerns library and information resources. We touch upon these in #9.
    4. Distance education
      1. Distance education remains perhaps the major source of increased access to programmes of all kinds. Start up costs for a programme are very high, so decisions must be carefully weighed, and every effort be made not to under-utilize material so, for instance, a text-book preparation programme for ministry officials should not remain a one-off event - it can be repeated or modified to fit developing circumstances.
      2. Current plans for programmes are: to complete the BSc Management Studies degree and the associated Agribusiness degree; to start a Diploma in Engineering Production Management; to provide the Foundation courses for all degrees; to offer a BEd in Educational Administration; and to create programmes in continuing medical education. Other initiatives include work on various courses in French language and literature being sponsored in part by the French government, and collaboration on the Canadian funded Distance Education scholarship programme which will offer degrees in teacher education, information technology, and hotel and tourism management. At sub-degree level, the SCS is entering the DE market with the management of the Commonwealth Youth Programme's diploma. This should be the first of many programmes that the School offers across the region, based on the expertise it has gathered in different places. This plan is itself proposing several access courses in English and mathematics for the SCS to take on.
      3. Our own programmes can build on the Canadian material in the three areas mentioned, rather as CEPAT adapted courses from Wye. Other areas where needs have been seen include other Social Science programmes, both undergraduate and MBA; broad humanities/social science based degrees of a kind useful for school teachers (work on which is progressing at St Augustine); postgraduate programmes in a number of areas (at least as a key component, combined with summer courses, or other intensive face-to-face interaction); and various sub-degree programmes for the SCS.
    5. Combining DE with TLI activity
      1. We must find a way for our expansion of DE to harmonize with TLI articulation, franchising, and divestment. One immediate policy change would be to include TLI staff as members of course teams for DEC programmes. As such they might be responsible for writing parts or all of a particular course. Where the course is already franchised to their TLI, they could perform the functions of course co-ordinator as well. The TLIs should be invited to play a larger role in the day-to-day management of DEC programmes, identifying local tutors and utilizing, where possible, their space for tutorial sessions. Just as the DEC is now providing funds for staffing and other expenses at the University Centres, so it would have to work out arrangements with TLIs that choose to become more involved in its work. If TLIs take this up, it will help to free up time of the Resident Tutors which is now preoccupied with DEC matters.
      2. In seeing distance education activity as faculty-driven, we are already trying to conceptualise it as a matter of team work rather than purely individual effort. The effect of the present proposals is to extend the membership of these teams to include all the relevant scholars in the region, not only those who happen to be employed by the University.
      3. In working on articulation and franchising we should always be open to the possibility of including a small DE element to allow coverage of what a TLI cannot cover itself - cf. the proposed intercampus use of DE to cover specialisations. The arrangements proposed for the H. Lavitty Stout Community College's franchise of education programmes, which include courses offered by their own and UWI on-campus staff, are suggestive of the way we might go, mixing and matching several modalities to permit NCC students to receive a comprehensive programme as easily as possible
      4. Mixed mode delivery must in fact become the norm for the whole University, on-campus as well as off. The decision to offer the new Foundation courses in a DE modality is welcome in this respect and should be seen as the harbinger of things to come.
    6. The NW Caribbean
      1. The four countries in this bloc are all remarkably different; we cannot generalise about their needs or our response to them. While benefitting from the CDB Loan Project, their involvement in distance education will still not match that of the other territories in quality, and geographical considerations argue against yet greater emphasis on teleconferencing. Here, then, distance education should emphasize print and computer assisted pedagogy. Both Belize and the Bahamas have degree-granting institutions which properly aspire to parity of esteem with the UWI. As yet, they are limited in size and range of programme. There is then scope for forms of articulation and joint degrees. There is also scope for interaction at postgraduate level, both for TLI staff development and for the development of collaborative programmes. Roughly nine times as many students from the Bahamas go to North America as come to UWI (where we had only 163 in 1997/98), so there is a large potential market if it can be tapped. In Belize and the Bahamas we shall make special efforts to publicize the University and to target potential students - Resident Tutors, with assistance perhaps from campus staff, will be asked to work with the feeder institutions that now mostly place their brighter students in North American institutions.
      2. In Cayman, we can perhaps hope mainly in the development of articulation arrangements with the local college. Both there and in the Turks and Caicos Islands, the DEC teleconferencing facility is located in the local college, so we have a chance to develop a University presence as an integral part of the local tertiary sector, as envisaged in both the Appraisal and the recent Governance reports, and as may also happen in the British Virgin Islands. In Turks, there is scope both for articulation with the Community College and for broad involvement in DE programmes.
    7. Scholarships
      1. As with postgraduate and other special awards (#5.1.2), one possibility is for us to establish a quota system for its open scholarships and bursaries, reserving a certain percentage for students from the NCCs. Taken together with much more active proselytizing by our Resident Tutors among the various feeder institutions, and a review by the Board for Undergraduate Studies of the various matriculation arrangements that are or ought to be in place, this should lead to a greater number of the better qualified NCC students coming to the campuses.
      2. While restricted scholarships in general create a complex array of awards open only to special categories, it is likely too that very little effort has ever been made to seek sponsorship from businesses in the NCCs for scholarships or bursaries for NCC students. We will work to make this become a part of regular fund-raising activities in the region - and beyond, if the UWI ever targets international companies with extensive interests in any of the NCCs.
    8. Accreditation issues: At the moment, efforts to articulate with TLIs involve a considerable investment in time and money on a case-by-case basis. The visiting teams often heard of the desirability of the successful implementation of proposals within ACTI for general criteria for different types of Associate Degree, and of a mechanism that would permit any institution to come to a relatively automatic decision on the level and content of any particular qualification awarded in the region. Several countries have or have plans for national accreditation bodies that will materially further the latter aim; CARICOM is working on a regional umbrella mechanism. The UWI has endorsed these moves and might offer to house the regional entity, as a special self-financing unit. Or it might find an appropriate location in the ACTI secretariat proposed above, since arguably the umbrella organization should not focus on accreditation itself but rather on the harmonizing of the accreditation work performed by the various national bodies.
    9. Access to the campuses
      1. It is has proposed that NCC students be charged fees related to the marginal cost of their presence on campus. In doing this, the teams heard how counterproductive it would be to continue the marked differentials in fees between faculties, which work against subjects we are intending to promote (science, including agriculture, and technology). Marginal costs should therefore be calculated on some other basis.
      2. It may be worth reiterating a recommendation made at UAC to the faculties, that they must begin to take into account, in their thoughts regarding campus needs, the various groups of students taking parts of programmes or articulated programmes in the TLIs or by distance education. We expect a marked increase in both these categories; campuses already complain vociferously about overcrowding; so we must act swiftly to prepare for the more complex future.
      3. Another issue raised during the visits concerns the treatment of NCC students who wish to live on-campus. Allocation of scarce accommodation on hall should be more sensitive to the needs of non-nationals.
    10. Special issues related to postgraduate work
      1. It has been suggested that we should try to establish some funds specifically earmarked for postgraduate work in the NCCs, scholarships or special grants. Given what often seem to be urgent local needs, perhaps one immediate aim for fundraising should be for the local Guild of Graduates to seek funding for an annual postgraduate award.
      2. Faculties need to liaise much more closely with relevant NGOs in the NCCs. There are opportunities for students to carry out research, to work on attachments, to involve NGOs in mutually beneficial research work, and to collaborate with it in formulating projects. Agriculture, environmental studies, community development, community health, cultural studies are only some of the areas in which NGOs exist in the NCCs and in which the UWI could participate.
      3. The Internet provides an ideal environment for the dialogue between student and supervisor that is critical for postgraduate research. We must impress on all faculties the need to permit and encourage, through reliance on e-mail, the registration of off-campus research students.
    11. Law
      1. The UWI must take steps at the highest levels to have the Council of Legal Education revisit the quota system, in particular in recognition of those countries that are now allocated a demonstrably inadequate number of places. It must also seek a clear statement of what the third Law School implies for the quotas.
      2. The Faculty of Law should make proposals on ways to franchise its programme to the College of the Bahamas, and in principle to other TLIs.
  2. Networking
    1. Resuscitation of the Guilds of Graduates: The 50th Anniversary Celebrations have provided an ideal opportunity to revive or to create Guilds of Graduates. The University Centre should facilitate them; the Resident Tutors will be asked to include them high among their priorities. We must set up immediately in the Vice-Chancellery a desk responsible for the sustenance of these Guilds. Its major aim should be to maintain interest and commitment to the University; it should not come across as first and foremost a fund-raising entity. Part of the funding for such a desk should be provision for continuing, beyond the 50th anniversary year, the regular sponsoring of guest lectures in the NCCs.
    2. Graduates as mentors: The visiting teams heard that NCC student associations at the campuses often provide welcome support for new students. A network of graduates in the NCC itself can help even earlier in the process, by contacting students who have been offered places, to encourage and advise them. The Resident Tutor at the University Centre and the local Guild should aim to make the Centre into a show-case for the campuses, involving students on vacation and prospective students in their activities, intellectual and social.
    3. Continuing education in the professional Faculties/Schools: The faculties, in particular the professional faculties and schools, already provide a good deal of continuing education throughout the region. While campuses and Academic Boards are represented on the BNCCDE, this does not really serve to facilitate co-ordination of this outreach work. The SCS is keen to extend its offerings, and this will involve it too in much wider collaboration with the faculties. The three Directors of the units under the BNCCDE meet regularly with the PVC. We propose that once a year such a meeting should be held on each campus with the Deans and others responsible for units with a considerable role in outreach activities. Such meetings are clearly required between consideration of this draft and the formulation of operational plans; they should continue, to maintain contact, set targets, and monitor the implementation of the Plan.
    4. Honorary Associates: The suggestion for identifying Honorary Associates has already been endorsed by the University; work is under-way to implement it. In our context, the importance of such Associates is that they can serve as links between the faculties and the NCC, reporting needs and opportunities for training, research, technical assistance, etc.
    5. Resident Tutors/Representatives as nodes in the communication network
      1. It has been noted that the University tends to remain in ignorance of NGOs; it lacks in many cases informal links with government departments, advisors and planners; it tends to deal with TLIs formally at a late stage in proceedings. One of the key responsibilities of the Resident Tutors should be to act as a clearing-house for all kinds of information that is relevant to different parts of the University and conversely as a channel for the University's contact with these and other agents in the NCCs.
      2. The University for its part has been asked to remember the Resident Tutor when staff intend to visit an NCC. Conversely, it is suggested that Resident Tutors should aim to familiarise themselves with key campus personnel when they visit a campus so that they can convey appropriate information to governments on University capacity. More generally we shall implement the suggestion that orientations to the campuses be provided for TLI and other persons; at Mona and St Augustine the SCS is well placed to organize such a service, at Cave Hill the Office of the BNCCDE will undertake to do so.
  3. University Presence
    1. What a university presence entails: A university typically comprehends research, scholarship, advanced level teaching and critical reflection on the world around us. But there is much besides. Advanced training in modern methods, passing on the understanding that grounds them, the cultivation and examination of many aspects of human culture, lower-level introductory or adjunct studies. Its range can be from the cradle (as with our own RPCDC) to the grave. Depending as they do on the other institutions in a particular society, these lower reaches are a contingent matter. We have a responsibility to the governments and peoples that fund us to be ever conscious of the shifting terrain upon which we find ourselves. We need to be responsive to changes in the educational environment, recognising that we are a comparatively expensive provider of services, and that in many of these "lower" reaches our proper task is to initiate, identify needs for attention, arrange for UWI expertise to be applied, develop local resources, and move on.
    2. The Future of the University Centres
      1. As a result of a complex history, the NCC University Centres are at the intersection of several paths. They were originally the home of external and extension studies. With the creation and expansion of the Challenge programme and soon after the UWIDITE distance education programmes, they became the local home of these regular programmes offered at a distance. The Resident Tutor has always been called upon to represent the University in a variety of roles, acting on behalf of many different university agencies. With the franchising of programmes to some TLIs, the RT and the Centre have become a crucial link in that process, responsible for the conduct of examinations, and in general serving as a post-box between the TLI and the campus. At the same time that these various jobs were thrust upon them, the local situation has itself been changing. Post-secondary provision has expanded in all the NCCs, the resulting TLIs have often moved towards University-level work, and have sometimes been directly franchised to offer it. Schools and TLIs have increasingly tapped a local market for access courses, and other forms of continuing education and training. Extra-regional providers have appeared in increasing numbers and in various guises: distance education; off-shore schools; easily accessible programmes.
      2. Very little of all this has been planned. Comparatively little close collaboration exists among the various players. In almost all cases, these players are physically distinct from each other, although there is often sharing of some facilities (library materials as in St Lucia or the Bahamas, or space as in Dominica, for instance).
      3. Since our overriding aim is to bring the benefits of a university to the NCCs, through greater representation of its students in our programmes, and through greater visibility and impact in the NCCs themselves, it behoves us to consider how, in each country, the various players should best collaborate, given that most of them will have their own aims in addition and possibly in conflict with ours. The logic of the position the University has endorsed would seem to have these consequences: (a) the UWI should expect a role at the higher levels of education and training, but (b) it should equally expect and promote the divestment of lower levels to local agencies as these become able and willing to undertake them. Simply put, it should do what only a university can do, including the pioneering of new programmes which others can adopt or adapt, and should leave the field to others to do what they can perfectly well do on their own. What this amounts to in any particular case will be a matter of changing historical circumstance, but this is what our goal commits us to.
      4. In the shorter time span of this Plan, we cannot expect radical change. Independent institutions exist and are not going to make themselves disappear overnight. People with specific skills and experience fill positions, and similarly are not going to disappear. The requirements of various University programmes are not going to alter radically in our time-frame. What we can anticipate is a sharpening of activity and greater differentiation: the Centres will remain sites for DE University programmes, but the TLIs may take over more responsibility for running them (v. #6.5); they will offer more programmes of their own, both DE and face-to-face, for access and for continuing education, in which the varied skills of the SCS (and related units on the campuses) are focussed and made available across the region; growing articulation with TLIs will inevitably result in smoother links between the TLI and the campuses so that the Centre's role in managing the relationship should be correspondingly reduced. For instance, many examination responsibilities can be shared with the TLIs. The recommendations we make to bring university activity to the NCCs and to provide the campuses with regular feedback will, if successful, provide a different and more satisfying channel of communication between the Centres and the TLIs.
    3. An Open College?: The crucial idea here, suggested by the Educational Planner for Distance Education in his final report, is implicit in existing plans for the SCS. Given that the SCS intends to consider the range of access and sub-degree needs throughout the region, and contract with the DEC to provide a DE approach to at least some of them, it will have to collaborate with TLIs and other training agencies and in effect bring them into a partnership for DE work of this kind. The University's faculties are not themselves geared to cater for all areas of need and it would be wastefully expensive for them to attend to training needs that can be adequately served by national colleges. To this end, appointments will be needed in specific disciplinary areas (an extension of the present SCS staff tutors) with a mandate to collaborate with the relevant faculties and with all other agencies with a stake in the particular discipline.
    4. Scholars/Artists in residence: This project has already been proposed and endorsed. In the present context, we will recommend that some appointments be targetted to supplement other recommendations, e.g. attachments in Belize.
    5. Country Conferences
      1. The SCS has begun plans for organising a series of NCC Country Conferences which will bring scholars from the NCC, the UWI and elsewhere to concentrate attention on issues of current salience to the particular country. Through the publication of these symposia, a series of scholarly resources focussing on the NCCs will be built up.
      2. The campuses organize a fair number of conferences, workshops, and symposia. While it is obviously more convenient and cheaper for them to organize these events either on campus or in close proximity, we ought to encourage (through the provision of special funds) some of these meetings to be held at a distance from the campuses, and in particular at NCC locations. It is quite likely that the relevant NCC ministry might welcome the opportunity to co-host such an event.
    6. Documentation of the NCCs
      1. One of the reasons for establishing the UWI Press was to provide scholarly documentation of the countries that support the University. The Press should seek to sponsor series of studies of the NCCs devoted to their history, culture, linguistic situation, biological and physical environment, etc.
      2. An increasingly important scholarly and public resource is the Internet. The University Centres should aim to host websites that provide wide and thorough documentation of their particular country, archiving significant historical documents, local and sadly often ephemeral literature and other cultural productions, etc. etc. It is proposed to create a number of exemplary sites during the duration of the plan.

9. Libraries/Information

  1. Virtual worlds
    1. If we aim to make a course available across the region, we now have three campuses plus 28 teleconference centres for teaching. If a book is required for a DE course, this means we should at least provide about 30 copies of it. A degree programme has 30 courses. With only one crucial book per course that gives us 900 books. The argument is meant to show that the only feasible way to provide our scattered students with the readings they should have access to is through "virtual libraries". The Lome IV Cariforum Project will give us a beginning here. We will ask the University to undertake a complete review of its funding of the Libraries in the context of wholesale digitization of holdings, subscription to electronic texts, etc.
    2. We will explore possibilities of collaborating in similar schemes elsewhere (the Florida network is an obvious choice).
    3. At a more traditional level, and as an aspect of the greater symbiosis between the University Centres and the local TLIs envisaged in this plan, we recommend that comprehensive plans be drawn up in each NCC to co-ordinate library developments and holdings.
    4. It should be remarked that the University has recently agreed that the University Librarian has overall responsibility for libraries in the University Centres, and thus for helping to address the training needs that exist in them. Here again, it would be advantageous to co-ordinate efforts with those for the TLIs and other library services.

10. Research in the NCCs

  1. Graduate students in residence: The recommendation here is to do something similar for postgraduate students working in an NCC as we are proposing to do for scholars or artists in residence. Provide them with some token assistance and space at the University Centre; publicize their work; facilitate their dealings with officials. Again there is scope for greater collaboration with TLIs, e.g. in access to laboratories and through conducting seminars or other educational activity.
  2. Collaborative projects with TLIs and NGOs
    1. We have noted already the UWI's comparative inattention to research opportunities provided by NGOs. There are a number of research facilities throughout the region, agricultural stations and laboratories, and there are a number of individuals, in TLIs, offshore institutions, and government employment who could be encouraged to participate in various sorts of research.
    2. To the extent that we can involve TLI staff in DE course teams, there will often be opportunities for small-scale local research that can provide local illustrative material for the resulting courses. This last may not be research of the kind agencies wish to fund, but its promotion is important both for regional self-understanding and for encouraging a culture of enquiry. We will continue to urge the Board for Undergraduate Studies to attend to its mandate to preserve and strengthen regionality within our teaching programmes.
  3. Incentives to include NCCs in research: The suggestion has already been made that we should find ways to encourage NCC involvement in research projects. So, for example, the criteria for the award of internally available research grants could give extra points for comparative studies involving an NCC, where appropriate.

11. Technical Assistance

  1. Dialogue: Funding that provides technical assistance to governments often comes with many strings attached. But where it is possible for it to be used on local UWI resources, a major problem is mutual ignorance. Governments or the private sector do not know what expertise we have; we do not know what it is they need assistance with. We have recommended that Resident Tutors give high priority to acting as go-betweens in this matter. The Office of the Board can serve as one of their first links at the University end, and to do so it should maintain contact with the faculties and the campus business offices which are charged with facilitating institutional consultancies. We will ask faculties to provide a register of projects and capacity; the Board will regularly pass information on to governments.

12. Physical Plant

  1. Upgrading: The Director, SCS, is working on a comprehensive set of proposals concerning the upgrading of existing Centres. As noted above, in many cases there seems a need for extra accommodation to handle the increasing local tutoring required by the expanded DEC operation. Given the timing associated with most DEC work, it ought in some cases to be possible to negotiate space sharing arrangements with local TLIs, schools, and other facilities. These would flow naturally from the greater collaboration envisaged in this plan between the work of the University Centres and local stake-holders.
  2. Policy on new locations: It has already been agreed to proceed to the creation of a physical University presence in those territories that have until now lacked one. But the University has not yet decided upon a formal policy for extra locations that arguably are needed, as in say Belize or Turks and Caicos, although the Board has already endorsed a proposal to set up a teleconferencing facility in Nevis. Its position and practice has been that it will support locally financed initiatives, as in Tobago or at several sites in Jamaica. These sites, as also the proposed one in Nevis, are geared only to distance education, and in particular the teleconferencing arm of that modality. In the short-term this certainly provides increased access and signals our regional commitment in the locality. Looking to the medium term we will need to reconsider our priorities. The DEC's emphasis, in distance education, is moving away from teleconferencing towards print, and now more recently towards computers. Both these media give much greater freedom to students to decide when and where to study. To the extent that they can become central to distance education provision, and to the extent that major outreach programmes can be offered in that modality, we ought not to need a plethora of teleconferencing sites. Until such time as we can expect students to have their own home computer on the Internet, we would need locations where students can have access to computers linked to the DEC network. It may also be noted that in the Bahamas the College of the Bahamas is expected to be running a distance education network linking several Bahamian islands. It ought to be possible to link up to this network for particular programmes.

13. Mechanisms for Dialogue

  1. An Ambassador for the UWI: The terms of reference for the PVC NCC/DE include the role of representative of the University to regional bodies such as CARICOM, OECS, and their sub-committees. To date, little has been achieved here. It is important for this plan that the Board's chairman play a more visible role in the deliberations of such bodies.
  2. A virtual desk at CARICOM: While interaction at the highest levels is essential, it is equally important to maintain contact and exchange ideas at other levels. Electronic communication provides an easy way to bring this about; the Office of the Board must work speedily to get into the loop at all stages of the planning of tertiary education matters, HRD, or research in the region.
  3. Electronic communication elsewhere: CARICOM is not the only entity with which the University needs regular informal links. As Dr Forde of SALCC suggested, the TLIs and the University should be in regular touch with each other, perhaps through a listserv or electronic mailing list. The DEC is acquiring the technical expertise required to set up such systems, so we could reasonably hope to create one before the end of the calendar year. It is essential for this that all the TLIs with which we are working should have e-mail and Internet connectivity. Again, a similar suggestion was made by the NRDF in St Lucia for a facility to exchange news and views on development issues.
  4. Publicity, marketing, public relations: A continual refrain in the visits to the NCCs concerned the difficulty of communicating with the University, of getting through on the phone, of discovering to whom one should be talking, of getting information accurately or in timely fashion, of receiving the impression that the University wanted to deal with you. Our advertisements belong in an official gazette rather than a 20th century newspaper. Our invitation to prospective students comes often too late and is largely a long list of monies that must be paid. One could go on. We have committed ourselves to self-improvement, and have begun to take action. We need only now remind ourselves how much more is still to be done, and to encourage yet speedier action.

Go to Background

Present situation and constraints

Country and faculty breakdown of proposals

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Prepared June 4th, 1998.

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

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