Students in Dominica now have an option to obtain degrees closer to home.
They now have a choice to attend the Fourth Landed Campus of the University of the West Indies in Antigua and Barbuda about thirty minutes by air from Dominica.
The Five Islands Campus of UWI was officially launched last night with hundreds of attendees including some of the leading educators in the region.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne said the historic moment paves the way for the continued enrichment of the Caribbean people.
“It will expand their knowledge, enhance the capacity, stand with the best and the brightest in the world, knowing they are equal,” Browne said.
But leading up to the momentous occasion, the decision to convert the Five Islands institution into a university was met with quite a bit of turbulence and at the formal opening, Minister for Education, Michael Browne did not fall shy in describing just how much was endured to achieve the significant milestone.
“I remember we came down to crunch time and coming down to crunch time, there oftentimes where many of you like me that time, recognized that you need the closure; you needed that final voice. The reality is, it doesn’t matter how polished a diamond looks. In the end, a diamond has to go through struggle,” Browne said.
In Browne’s opening remarks, he explained that the university is the government’s fulfillment of its mandate to build an economic powerhouse.
“The history of the University of the West Indies, the history of the people of Antigua and Barbuda and the Eastern Caribbean and by broader extension the Caribbean, married to the vision of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and government and people of Antigua and Barbuda produces and births a vision. That vision captured in very, very simple words: Our country shall and must be an economic powerhouse,” he said.
UWI Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles was also present for the historic celebration.
He said the occasion merely signified a responsibility to the people of the Caribbean.
Beckles also urged that the citizens of Antigua and Barbuda ensure that at least one member of every family goes to the university and get a university education.
AMEN to that!. Mr Gaston Brown seems to be doing an exceptional job in Antigua. Huge progress in the tertiary education sector. Dominica we still waiting for the old Ross campus to open with those indian students that were promised. I myself seeing is majeee alone that going on here in Dominica. trying to make sense from nonsense. Nothing connecting everything operating hap hazard. We could have had a proper UWI campus here, to serve the region. All other sister islands progressing but we just wasting money and losing money here. FOOOOOLS that in power that in league with big Hypocrites that keeping the country back.
Congratulations to the Antigua & Barbuda government. This is visionary leadership. Other Eastern Caribbean states should emulate this type of progressive move. It doesn’t have to be a university. What about a Centre of Technology, a Wellness Institution, a Sports Academy, a Vocational Training Institute where locals, Caribbean people and foreigners can take advantage of. Regional governments should stop just trying to retain power but try instead to empower their people.
Let’s just apply and gain our degrees.
While that is happening in Antigua, a buffoon in Dominica with the title of Prime Minister allowed Ross University to leave our shores after 40years..The idiot continues to show his gross ineptness in the CBI programme, where he still cannot tell the populace where an estimated 1.291 billion dollars of their money is.
Whey is di money?
Whey is di money?
Whey is di money
No need to get angry or jealous. We should all be happy. This is good stuff for the entire Caribbean. This is just another UWI campus to move further and obtain your Bachelor and Master. We, like some other islands, have a State College and an Open UWI Campus where you can obtain your Associates Degree and move on to one of UWI CAMPUSES depending on your field to further your education in obtaining a Bachelor and Master. That is all. What the Associates does also is to cut down on your entire college cost by starting at home and then moving further afield to a higher level. Great Job. Education on a mission. Think of the days when you had to have so many A’Levels to enter UWI. Not anymore. Four O’Levels will get you in. Thanks be to God for that.
Why didn’t the government negotiate to have UWI open this campus in Dominica to replace Ross. Just a bunch of incompetent ministers who does not have the country’s interests at heart. Waste of time.
You need to understand that opportunities are taken to places where investors see progress; Antigua is a progressive island, whereas Roosevelt and his Dominica mentality; way of thinking is ten and twelfth century backward thinking!
The University of the West Indies is a business, therefore the Chancellor, and directors whoever are in command would always look for the most appropriate location to erect a new campus.
Notice you never heard any talk about it by the Antiguan’s prior to the completion.
Nothing to negotiate!
Who would invest that sort of money in a country where the nation economy is based on the sale of passports?
Antigua is a 108 square miles; Dominica is 289.9 – 305 square miles; the population of Dominica is less than fifty thousand people, whereas Antigua’s population is over a hundred thousand plus or minus.
There are much more business in Antigua than Dominica. As many hotels operating in Antigua; I never heard Antigua government gave foreigners money to…
I was about to end by saying as many hotels operating in Antigua when hotel investors started building in Antigua, I’ve never heard the Bird government gave millions of Dollars to any foreigner to build hotels.
There must be something to pull investors into a country, and one of the pull must be an effort by the government to develop the country to a point that when an outsider take a look at the country, they can see some potential for development.
There is nothing in Dominica to attract investors, and even the few who came such as Ross University, Colgate Palmolive and others after all these years pleading to see some form of developmental changes in the infrastructure to no avail, these investors had absolutely no alternative than to leave Dominica to Roosevelt Skerrit and his team of doctors.
I don’t mean medical (MD’s) doctors; I am talking about the idiots who call themselves Dr., nevertheless they can’t state the university where they graduated.
That includes Roosevelt…
Don’t be stupid, Francisco. What of if all the islands in the Caribbean had a UWI campus? Would not make sense at all. I can see all the islands having a State College but not a UWI campus. Then UWI would not be as profitable as it maybe now. And the campuses would be 3/4 empty. We do not have a large economy in the Caribbean and not a large population. And guess what, the principals would be begging every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the street to come to UWI. Gone are the days when university was a privilege for a few. Now University is all a business trying to make money and survive. They know damn well they would not survive today on 3, 4 A,levels. That is why to get more students to attend, they are looking for students with at least 4 O’Levels today. There is a larger student population with 4 O’Levels than there are with 3,4 A’Levels. It is all about surviving today.
I’m happy for Antigua. I don’t think this process started in the last two years though. That must have been in the pipeline for a while.
That is great news. As Gaston shared with CBS News, he used Economic Citizenship Program to clear Antigua’s debts, and not this. This is what leadership is all about.
I sure would like the opportunity to explore the possibility of attending a Caribbean institution of higher learning, just to be grounded with my own people, just to be elevated by my own people, even if I do not need it.
I wonder what happened to the new university that is supposed to replace Ross?
More pie in the sky promises
How long does it take for a pie in the sky under the gravitational pull of the earth to hit the ground?
a. When 🐖 fly
b. When 🐓grow teeth
c. Closer to election date
d. Never