As the start of the new academic year rapidly approaches, the St. Augustine campus is a bee-hive of activity as preparations are well underway for the new intake of students. Student Support Staff from various departments are busy with the plans for registration and orientation of new students. Some of the different orientation programmes being organized for students are given below.

UWI Life 2007 Orientation consists of three parts, the UWI Life Support, UWI Life Student Orientation and UWI Life Extension.

The UWI Life Support Network is designed to provide parents, spouses and close relatives of the students with information concerning the various student initiatives and counseling services available at UWI. This session will be held on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at the Sport and Physical Education Centre (SPEC) from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

The UWI Life Student Orientation will provide undergraduates with the opportunity to meet key members of the Campus staff and Management and learn about campus life. The Student Orientation programme will take place on Thursday, August 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the UWI SPEC and will feature remarks by the Acting Campus Principal Professor Bridget Brereton; Deputy Principal Professor Gurmohan Kochhar; Student Guild President Natasha Grimes; and other invited speakers. The highlight of the programme for students will be the ‘icebreaker’ which takes place in the afternoon session.

The UWI Life Orientation will conclude with the UWI Life Extension which will take place on Thursday, September 6, 2007 at the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. This session caters to the part-time, mature, distance, evening and postgraduate students.

The Check-In programme is organized by the Student Advisory Services and is scheduled for Saturday, August 25 and Sunday, August 26, 2007. This programme is geared towards assisting regional and international first year and first time students with their transition to life at UWI, the services available to them as well as life in Trinidad and Tobago.

This programme is also coordinated by the Student Advisory Services and caters to first year and first time international and regional students. The “Meet and Greet” programme involves representatives from Student Advisory Services meeting the new students and providing transportation for them to their respective residences. The program will run from August 20 to September 2, 2007.

The Guild of Student’s hosts an orientation week during the first week of teaching. Booths are usually set up between the JFK Quadrangle and the Student Activity Centre and exposes new students to the different clubs and organizations present on campus. The highlight of the event for new students though seems to be the distribution of promotional materials by various corporate entities who participate during the orientation week.

For the 2007/2008 academic year, all students will be required to register online at http://sta.uwi.edu/registration. Students can register from anywhere, either on-campus or off-campus, simply using a computer with internet access between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 midnight Eastern Standard Time. There is an online registration guide and it can be accessed at http://sta.uwi.edu/registration/guide.pdf. The five registration steps are as follows: Faculty Orientation; Academic Advising; Course Registration; Financial Clearance; and obtaining a UWI Student ID Card. Detailed instructions about these five steps are provided in the registration guide.