University of the West Indies

• Author: Duke Pollard
• Profession: Sitting senior judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the highest appellate municipal court of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Pages: 33-41

The University of the West Indies 33

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THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES

The University of the West Indies (UWI), an icon of Caribbean integration, is currently

undergoing a process of self-examination prior, it is hoped, to far-reaching restructuring

to enable it to address and overcome the challenges of the new millennium. The self-

doubt pervading the performance of this venerable institution appears to be due in large

measure to the erosion of values which sustained and propelled it to international renown

in the last two decades: discipline, an unqualified commitment to excellence and

inordinate self-confidence. In the observation of the Chancellor’s Commission set up

to examine governance in the University of the West Indies,

(t)he University has in the past faced squarely, and largely overcome brilliantly,

several circumstances of extraordinary challenge : three campuses divided by

hundreds of kilometers of open sea; jurisdictional and financial dependence upon

fourteen separate national governments; a Region marked by low incomes and

sluggish (largely resource-based) economies; broad variations in the academic

performance of secondary school leavers.1

The objects of the University as set out in its Charter are: to provide a place or

places of education, learning and research of a standard required and expected of a

University of the highest standard, and to secure the advancement of knowledge and

the diffusion and extension of arts, science and learning throughout the Contributing

Countries; to continue and expand its works and activities and, by the example and

influence of its corporate life, to promote wisdom and understanding. Complementing

these objects is the University’s Mission Statement which seeks to support the growth

and development of West Indian Society through cost-effective training of the high

quality human resource and the generation, adaptation and dissemination of knowledge

which the peoples and institutions of the Region require to formulate and implement

development plans from time to time; acting as a catalyst to enhance the capability of

the tertiary learning institutions and generally operating as the hub of the tertiary

education system in the Region; delivering expertise and advisory services to

Governments and the wider West Indian community by enlarging its functional linkages

with Governments, business enterprises, and other groups committed to the development

of West Indian society; serving as a bridge joining the Region with sources of information,

markets, resources and opportunity in the rest of the world; enhancing the standing of

the people of the Region in international fora by contributing meaningfully to the world

stock of knowledge on development issues and to the arts and literature; and providing