Principal's Message
Keeping Pace with Development
Fostering excellence
in the teaching and learning
space is without question a
primary focus of any modern
world-class university. It is the
unrelenting drive to exceed
expectations, to improve on past
accomplishments, to continuously
renew in an increasingly dynamic
environment that allows great
universities to keep on providing
the all-round quality academic
experience that separates them
from the ordinary.
Continuing on its progressive development
paths towards attaining and
maintaining such excellence, The
University of the West Indies
has once again made some
invaluable breakthroughs.
Most recently, The UWI,
Mona Campus attained
the distinction of becoming
the first tertiary
education institution in
Jamaica to attain full
‘Institutional Accreditation
by the University Council of
Jamaica’. The St. Augustine
Campus has also sought and
obtained accreditation from the Accreditation Council of Trinidad & Tobago, while the Cave Hill
Campus and the Open Campus
are currently seeking accreditation
from the Barbados Accreditation
Council. The Mona Campus’
accreditation which took effect
from February 1, 2012 will run for
the maximum possible period of
seven years.
Around the same time of our receiving
institutional accreditation from the
UCJ, the Caribbean Accreditation
Authority in Medicine and the Health
Professions (CAAM-HP) granted accreditation
to The UWI’s medical programmes for
a five-year period ending in 2017. In its
report, the CAAM-HP noted that the
“UWI is producing well trained graduates”.
The significance of this development
resonates not only with The UWI, but with
the entire Caribbean region, whose development
we are tasked with facilitating. It
simply means that in a consistently evolving
world, our University is keeping pace
with the changes, ensuring that we are
fully equipped with the tools and ammunition
to effectively shape and support
the future, and not allowing the
Region to be left behind. The detailed
assessment of The UWI’s operations
by the accreditation body agreed that
our objectives, our mission,
our student services, our
education quality, our
admission requirements
and our reputation, truly
represent tertiary advancement
at its optimum.
Another development in
keeping with our vision for
a world-class academy involves
the merger of the
Mona School of Business
and the Department of
Management Studies,
which has formed The Mona
School of Business and
Management (MSBM), the
largest business school of its
kind in the Region. This union
provides The UWI, Mona
Campus with greater capacity
to produce a critical mass
of scholars to strengthen
research capability in
business and management
and facilitate cutting-edge
innovations that will
address the priorities
of Jamaica and the wider Caribbean
region. The new MSBM will offer both
undergraduate and graduate degree
programs under the Faculty of
Social Sciences.
Other significant developments include
the introduction of new programmes in
Mona’s Faculty of Science & Technology
(formerly Pure & Applied Sciences) in
previously unexplored areas such as
optics and photonics; and the adoption
of a new approach to the teaching of
modern languages in the Faculty of
Humanities & Education, to ensure that
our students can access and function in
a variety of cultures through competence
in several different languages.
Evidence that The UWI’s unrelenting focus
on excellence is bearing fruit can be seen
yet again in UWI graduates copping both
coveted Jamaican and Caribbean Rhodes
Scholarships. It is also evident in the impact
that the work of Mona’s newly
appointed professors is having worldwide
in areas such as paediatric HIV/AIDS,
herpetology and conservation biology.
The UWI, Mona should be proud of the
developments, and rightly so. As yet
another cohort of graduates leaves its
doors to take up their roles in society,
we are confident that the preparation
they have received and their overall
experience here at Mona, guarantee that
they are fully equipped to make sterling
contributions to Jamaica, the region and
the world.
Professor Gordon Shirley, OJ
Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal
UWI, Mona Campus |
