This is part of a presentation delivered to the St. Augustine Campus Council by Principal Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie.

Whatever we have done, whatever we have achieved, we have done and achieved together. Whatever we have fallen short on, it was not for want for trying. It is the job of a leader to articulate and present his vision clearly and to create the climate for as many as possible to contribute to the achievement of the vision. Sometimes the leader must provide direction or clarification or support or encouragement. But the leader must always provide inspiration and hope: so that others will take initiative; yet others responsibility; and so a culture of accountability emerges, productivity is unleashed, performance begins to matter and everyone strives for higher and higher achievement. We have set aside one day this year to recognize the contribution of our staff, some of whom will retire, many of whom will continue to contribute and I look forward to that evening of celebration.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I drew your attention to some documents that have been circulated for your information. First of all the annual report which covers the period 2005-2006. You will see that at last graduation the output of graduates was almost 1,000 more than 5 years ago 2001-2002 and I assure you that in October 2007, the number of graduates will be more than the 2,551 who graduated last year.

The report gives you the growth in intake over the years but I wish to emphasize that we are also increasing quality output.

The performance of the 2005-2006 graduates is seven percent (7%) with first class honours, close to 20 percent (20%) with upper seconds and over 50 percent (54.2%) with second class honours or better.

I wish to emphasize the fact that we have worked constructively with the GOTT on this campus to make Research a reality and to put down a platform for sustainable research and innovation endeavours. We offer students a range of services from orientation to career preparation; counseling and advice. We care about our students. During orientation their parents and guardians are involved or husband or wife as the case may be. Close to graduation, we bring in companies to interview them. We try to support our students as effectively as we can while they are here. In the year under review 383 scholarships and bursaries were given out. Postgraduate research students are now being paid TT$60,000 per annum to pursue their studies. The ratio of students per computer is 9:1 and our most recent survey indicates that less than 3 percent (3%) of our graduating class have difficulty in the market place.

I draw your attention as well to our international agreements. This is something that is poised to intensify and grow on this campus in student exchange and study abroad programmes, research collaboration and international project funding. I share with you two brochures which have been prepared by the International Office, headed by Indrani Bachan-Persad, one for our students who wish to study abroad and the other for our University partners abroad who wish to send their students here. Meanwhile we have students on this campus from 54 countries and our target for international students remains 10 percent (10%) while the number of universities coming here for study abroad increasing.

I now draw your attention to the Faculty report where you will note that the emphasis is on honours and awards for achievement revenue generation, public and professional service, the quality performance of students, partnership with industry, the flow of distinguished visitors and the growth of international collaboration, research and publications accreditation, international grants, regional outreach to and support for our tertiary sector partners. The focus of all faculties is becoming sharper and priorities are becoming clearer and you will see later scholarly output is improving. Note the publication of articles and book chapters and books, and the presentation of conference papers.

In every faculty you will see a clear emphasis on teaching and learning quality, international accreditation and high global standards, research, student support and international collaboration. We are on the right road. However, I now draw your attention to the fact that these documents are produced by the Marketing and Communications Department headed by Dawn-Marie DeFour-Gill and I ask you to acknowledge and appreciate their quality.

Members of Council, I take this opportunity to let you know that this campus has become a beehive of activity. Now as I speak here, a SALISES-organized conference on Economics is going on. Over the last two weeks we have had the Sonny Ramadhin Lecture, the Evening of Appreciation for Sir Frank Worrel, activities and speakers to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and this year we are celebrating the Nobel Laureate Sir V.S. Naipaul who was here during the week of the April 16; and in 2008 Sir Arthur Lewis; and 2009 Derek Walcott.

The buzz of activity on this campus brings the wider community to us in St. Augustine and strengthens relationships with our stakeholders who are identifying more and more positively with us. And we reach out to the community as well through our publications such as “UWItoday” and “STAN”. UWItoday is edited by Indrani Bachan-Persad and STAN’s editor is Anna Walcott-Hardy. Both are excellent publications letting the country the region and the world know what is happening at UWI and also allowing UWI people to appreciate what their peers are doing.

This campus is actively engaged in support of the regional tertiary sector. Right here at home we have produced the first graduates of UWI-UTT collaboration with B-tech degrees and we have a working collaboration with both Cipriani Labour College to whom we have franchised the first year programme in Social Science and TTHI whose B+ students are admitted to degree programme in Tourism Management. We have strengthened our relations with community colleges in St. Kitts and St. Lucia and we have begun a constructive engagement with both St. Vincent and Grenada to strengthen tertiary institutions, to build capacity and assist them in quality upgrade. Meanwhile, the number of regional students on this campus, number 1,277- the highest ever, including students from Guyana, Bermuda and the French Antilles. In any given year, 33 scholarships are available to CARICOM nationals outside of Trinidad and Tobago.

This campus will surpass its target of 16,000 students as defined in the 2002-2007 Strategic Plan in the coming academic year. We have put in the infrastructure and human and technological support systems to make this a truly student-centered campus. The emphasis on quality in the teaching and learning environment, including accreditation and high quality performance issues have never been stronger. The quality of our students is exceptional. This academic year 58% of the National Scholarship winners chose St. Augustine. Our IT platform is making progress in leaps, this year a lot of our focus was on strengthening the institution in the middle with administrative support, and with improving the face-to-face contact of students in small groups through increased numbers of part-time faculty. Our financial position is strong although we would like to diversify our sources of income even more and further reduce our dependence on state funding. Our relations with Alumni and stakeholders improve everyday as we encourage and work to achieve a framework of mutual support.

Our approach to the development of this campus has been a thoughtful, deliberate one based on the conviction that UWI, in the knowledge age, is best poised to lead development in the region but that it could only position itself to do that if it transforms itself into the best university that it could be, using international benchmarks and focusing on the solution of regional problems and challenges. We have tried to move swiftly and steadily in this direction through achievement of the objectives of the 2002-2007 Strategic Plan. Currently this campus is in the process of aligning itself with the objectives of the 2007-2012 Strategic Plan now being prioritized.

• Teaching and Learning
• Graduate Education
• Research
• Service to Underserved Committees
• Funding the Enterprise
• Strengthening Regionality
• Strengthening National Engagement Processes
• Administrative Transformation
• International Partnerships

I hope that you will agree that UWI is a place of “Light, Learning, Enlightenment and Achievement.”