Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles has
congratulated the Antigua and Barbuda government for investing in the UWI Five
Islands Campus (FIC), as it forms part of the university’s strategic plan to address
issues of access for people in the OECS countries.
Delivering his report on the Academic Year 2021-2022 to the UWI Council on
Wednesday, Sir Hilary noted that the people of the OECS had a lower rate of
attendance to tertiary level institutions, than other citizens in countries with a
university campus.
“For many decades, it has been argued that the university was underperforming in
the sub-region of the Caribbean known as the OECS. The OECS states found
themselves with the lowest rate of enrollment among young people in higher
education in the region. The OECS found themselves in the circumstance where
their economies were experiencing anemic growth. The OECS found themselves
lagging in economic development and transformation behind those that were
invested with a landed campus of the UWI. We therefore, took the bold and
strategic decision to institute a UWI campus in the OECS with the FIC in Antigua
and Barbuda,” Sir Hilary remarked.
According to the UWI Vice Chancellor, the FIC campus is already off to ‘a
magnificent start’, as he congratulated the government for living up to its promise
to invest in the university.
He added that while the UWI FIC is primarily a campus for the OECS, like all
other UWI campuses, it is open to citizens of the wider Caribbean. He also
expressed the university’s pleasure when the government was able to secure
funding from the Saudi Funds of US$80 million to invest in the expansion of UWI
FIC.
“The university under the leadership of Professor Densil Williams had already
developed a master plan for the expansion that will include all the facilities
necessary for a modern university campus. This US$80 million investment by the
Antigua and Barbuda government will enable the FIC to be able to be fully
completed with these facilities within the next two to four years,” he revealed.
Sir Hilary noted that the UWI FIC will emerge from the expansion as a state-of-
the-art university, within the university system of the UWI family. “This is an
excellent example of the university pushing access beyond the traditional
boundaries and frontiers; now we have our fourth landed campus,” he declared.
