President George Maxwell Richards formally declared open the Institute of Critical Thinking, UWI St Augustine on 4 April, 2007. In a deviation from the normal opening ceremony, which usually entails the cutting of a ribbon, His Excellency signed a certificate to commemorate the official opening. He also honoured the Institute by becoming the first visitor to sign the guest book.

Following the formal opening of the Institute, guests lined up to sign the visitors’ book and joined the Principal and other members of the University community for cocktails.

The idea of an Institute of Critical Thinking emerged in 2002 as discussions initiated by Campus Principal Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie threw up the possibility of hosting a conference on Critical Thinking. As discussions continued, an agreement was reached to hold a conference on “Critical Thinking in Teaching and Learning” and on 14 January, 2004, that conference was opened by former Principal, now President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Professor George Maxwell Richards. A wide-cross-section of regional and international academics attended the conference.

At the Opening Ceremony, Professor R.J. Sternberg, IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University gave the feature address and Dr Tewarie indicated then, that the Institute of Critical Thinking would be established on the St Augustine Campus and that his Excellency would be invited to formally open the Institute. That Conference was followed up by sessions introducing the campus faculty to workshops in critical thinking in a classroom setting. More than 100 faculty members were exposed to workshops in critical thinking conducted by Dr Alec Fisher of the University of East Anglia.

A year after the Conference on Critical Thinking, UWI St Augustine teamed up with the Ministry of Education to host on 5 and 6 January, 2005, two sessions by the distinguished educator, Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A thousand teachers from the primary and secondary school system and an equivalent number of UWI faculty and staff attended these sessions.

Since then, out of the Institute has emerged the Mathematics Initiative to link UWI mathematicians and mathematicians around the world with each other and to deepen and broaden the knowledge of primary and secondary school teachers in Mathematics in the region by hosting summer sessions on specific topics during school vacation periods on the St. Augustine campus.

Other initiatives to internationalise participation by leading thinkers in various fields on projects which present challenges for developing countries are planned and a number of projects will be launched over the next year.