By Professor Gordon Shirley
One of the challenges the university faces is that the model of service to the region has to be adjusted to meet the realities of our times. Sixty years ago the real philosophy was to create a civil service that would replace the colonials; the campus was also smaller and residential. Today, the student body has grown (currently some 43,000 students across the four campuses), so it is not possible to move people around the region as easily as used to happen.
As we expand, we find ourselves in a position where we have to offer all the specializations on each campus. People say the regional spirit is being lost because students are largely confined to their home campuses. In my opinion, regionality for the founding fathers meant the opportunity to have equal access to the various disciplines, regardless of your country of birth.
I think regionalism is as important as it was 60 years ago. We may ask if it has worked in terms of market access as some of our intra-regional markets are still evidently too closed to each other. I think the intention was for us to move forward together, but there is limited political will to share resources. A case in point: our systems of governance require an independent civil service. It is not clear to me that the public service in our countries talks or interacts effectively in a way which facilitates sharing of knowledge and a more uniform development across the region. I do not think the private sector sees this region as one bloc dealing with the rest of the world.
What I would like to see of The University of the West Indies within the next five years is that it becomes more of an institution that facilitates this kind of integration between public and private sectors across the region; that it is an engine of growth; a place that creates knowledge and facilitates the sharing of ideas, and that it becomes an international hub for this kind of intellectual activity. I would like to see us further along the path to self-sustainability, developing truly viable business models for our operators. Then I think we will be able to realize the goals that have eluded us up to this point.
I am a deep regionalist, but I think my views on regionalism may not be the same as those of other people. I don’t think my views are to hark back to the past, and I don’t think you have to have political integration as a condition of regionalism. The focus, I think, has to be on sustainability and growth.
The Mona Campus has had to make strategic shifts in its approach to sustainability, especially in the light of reduction in its government subventions. One characteristic of this reduction is the emphasis by the government on early childhood education as a development thrust, which is widely recommended by international bodies. Our own School of Education has been a leader in the research supporting this as a way forward, so it is difficult for the Campus to separate itself from this philosophy.
However, it has meant less financial support for tertiary level institutions and because I am not interested in barely surviving we have found innovative ways to recalibrate our approaches so that we position ourselves at the cutting edge.
As we require knowledge-based societies, we are not necessarily creating leaders as we did in the past when the mandate was to produce replacement of the colonial administrators; rather we are producing citizens who can make contributions at all levels. I don’t think we should be asking if The UWI has failed in the past 60 years to fulfill its mandate, but whether we need to renew that mandate. It is more relevant to ask how we can transform ourselves in to a university that better meets the needs of the region. We have to find the right balance. Yes, we have to produce more job-ready graduates, but we also have to encourage research because this is an environment that is rapidly changing, complex and sometimes confusing.
Economic realities have meant changing roles for universities and campuses-it is not unique to Jamaica- it is happening in the US and Europe where some universities are doing away with entire departments. We would be reluctant to go down that path, preferring to reposition the curriculum. For instance, we think that Humanities are as vitally important as they were 60 years ago because they really help our students to think creatively and to express themselves effectively. Equally, we think the Sciences are important… indeed, all the disciplines.
The quest today is for research which is on par with international standards and we now have to focus more on applying that research to practical matters. As a university, when things are going well the priority is being internationally ranked; in lean times, you need to be relevant.
And Mona is making itself relevant. The steps we have taken are not simply to cut costs. We have had to implement what I see as a first wave of measures: a freeze on vacancies, elimination of overtime and sale of leave, reduction in salary and utility costs, and scaled back employment of part time and temporary staff. But the longer – term measures are those we have carefully considered as ways of keeping the vitality of university life and culture through scholarship and intellectual development and marrying it with a new entrepreneurial spirit.
We have begun channelling our energies into a few broad areas: aggressively pursuing international grants for research, both for staff and students, becoming more self-reliant by generating additional sources of income, improving efficiencies which help cut costs and investing in transforming research into practical, commercial enterprises.
However, we are conscious of keeping our balance. For instance, because international agencies tend toward research grants in areas of universal interest, we provide internal funding for research that is specific and relevant to regional needs, such as crime and violence in Jamaica and the problems underpinning it; or increasing the capacity of small and medium entrepreneurs.
In health, for example, the Tropical Medicine Research Institute (TMRI) is internationally recognized for the work of its Sickle Cell Research Unit and the expanded focus of the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit which is doing an enormous amount of outreach and research in chronic areas such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases so prevalent in the Caribbean. We want to replicate this model in other disciplines.
Right here at Mona, scholars are working on projects that are simultaneously relevant and innovative with great economic potential. Two young scholars, one out of our Bahamas campus, have developed a cardiac simulator which uses a pig’s heart to reproduce human-like conditions to such a degree that it is possible for doctors to use it as a training device. We have patented it, and major hospitals like Johns Hopkins have already placed orders for it. In the past, that research may have simply been published as a paper, but we are pushing towards the next steps by exploring the commercial potential. So, despite constraints we are not moving away from doing what universities do, rather I think we are moving closer to being a modern university, because we are responding to contemporary demands.
That is why I am so committed to seeing UWI develop in a manner that is relevant, practical and sustainable.
Reprinted from The Pelican – A magazine of the University of The West Indies: Issue 8, July – December 2010
