If the University of Guyana (UG) is to attract the knowledge of additional PhD-level academic staff to add to the meagre 3% it possesses, it may very well have increase current salaries by as much as 200%, according to a consultant, who added that while the cost might seem steep, it would be far costlier to have an ignorant population.
Trevor Hamilton of Trevor Hamilton and Associates, whose consulting services were contracted to facilitate the ‘Enhancement of the Regulatory Framework for the Improvement of Opera-tions at the University of Guyana,’ made the comment during the opening ceremony of a series of workshops held to discuss the findings of his consultations with stakeholders.
He stated that as Caricom’s fastest growing economy, Guyana is seeing the expansion of several of its sectors, crucial to this development. As such, a university is instrumental in producing the required human resources to fill positions in these sectors. However, the exact opposite is happening.
Hamilton said that every four years the country loses 85% of its graduates; furthermore, many of the graduates who stay do not have the necessary competencies to occupy positions crucial to sustained growth. “The boom in Guyana’s mining sector, for example, is facilitated mostly by people with work permits because the country does not have the capacity to partake in the growth, it does not have capacity to fill those jobs.”
UG will, therefore, have to be the catalyst for the development of education that is so badly needed, he said. This development will enable Guyana to continuously replenish the numbers of graduate who leave every year, as well as provide human resources capable of bolstering the country’s continued economic growth.
Hamilton said that a debate on whether or not it can be afforded should cease to be the focus. He said we should instead ask ourselves if we can afford to have an ignorant population. Once this question is adequately answered we will find that “the development of UG is not expensive,” he added.
Reiterating a point that he and Vice Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi have made before, Pro Chancellor Prem Misir said that if UG is to address the issues confronting its most important stakeholders—its students—more funding is needed. He said it is this financial deficiency which has resulted in the poor education of students and well as the poor facilities found at the university. Misir said that to address this financial issue, which has plagued the university for decades, it must become innovative in all its processes, including its means of procuring funding.
The predicament is not an isolated one. He said that many universities, including in the United States of America and Europe, are receiving less and less government assistance, which has forced them to adapt. “A reduced government budget where universities are concerned is a now a norm in the wider world,” Misir said.
He said many universities and colleges have therefore opted to combine faculties and departments and even cut back on staff to deal with their financial constraints.
According to Misir, any university encountering financial woes must reorganise if it is to survive and ensure its programmes remain relevant to the needs of society. As it relates to UG, “reorganisation is now a necessity and not an option,” said Misir. In addition to reorganisation, it is imperative that the university look to other sources, such as the private sector, to supplement its expenditure.
Though Misir expressed optimism that this latest consultation will highlight all the problems as well as provide all the answers and solutions to these problems, he noted the non-implementation of previous such works, including the Human Resource Training and Development (IDB programme, 1991); the UG Academic Plan 1990 – 1995 (1991); IDB 5-year Development Plan (1986); the former president of Guyana, Dr Cheddi Jagan’s Presiden-tial Commission of Inquiry into the University of Guyana with 40 recommendations (1996) and the Distance Education Department of the Institute of Adult and Continuing Education’s 5-year Development Plan (1995).
He opined that when the time comes, the findings of the current project, as well as the previous ones can all be considered and the knowledge contained in the reports can be translated into reality.
Misir said though, that regardless of the changes made, UG must never deny any student access to higher education because of their economic status.
Hamilton stated that yesterday’s workshops would engage stakeholders, including UG students, employees and members of the private sector on increasing capacity and efficiency, enhancing the effectiveness of governance and administration and staff motivation, improving relevance and competitiveness of the UG education product, and improving fiscal planning, management and self reliance.
Shedding light on some of his finding in these areas, Hamilton said he has found that the inability to increase their capacity and become more efficient has led to many ails including insufficient facilities management and inadequate academic portfolio to respond to development.
These shortcomings were said to have created further negative implications such as an unsafe work and study environment on the campus, and a weak capital programme and management capacity.
One of the most daunting results of this collage of inefficiencies is that within the first two years after graduation, unemployment among graduates in Guyana was around 40%.
It was against this backdrop that Vice Chancellor Opadeyi called for animated sessions during the workshops, Acting Education Minister Frank Anthony reinforced calls for restructured educational programmes as well as a diversification in the university’s financial sources. As suggested by Opadeyi and Misir, he cited garnering endowments and forging relationships with the private sector as possible ways to gather the finances the university so desperately needs.
Anthony also called for the integration of Information Communication Technology as teaching tools at the university. He said that more and more tertiary initiations are emerging, many of which possess the ability to provide distance learning to Guyanese desirous to pursue such a route. He warned that in such an environment, if UG is to compete, it must innovate.
The entire consultation was funded by a grant from the Caribbean Development Bank (CBD) and the final report will be submitted in one month, after which it will be considered by the UG council as well as the Government of Guyana.
