President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Clinton Urling says that the University of Guyana was poorly equipped to produce graduates with the necessary abilities to satisfy the current needs of the private sector.
Urling stated that “the inability of our university and other tertiary institutions to produce graduates that meet the requirements of the private sector… sometimes even the programmes offered at the university might be inadequate or sometimes not even relevant to the private sector realities of today.”
It was the latest expression of dissatisfaction by the private sector over the suitability of graduates from the university.
Speaking at the launch of a Chamber survey on Tuesday, Urling further said that Guyana continues to face a migration of skilled professionals and this hinders Guyana’s ability to compete at the global level. Urling stated that the GCCI has been advocating for an entire overhaul of the University of Guyana. He noted that “we want to see the university being a major research and development hub for the private sector and economic development we also need to look at issues (for) crafting strategies to retain folks in Guyana as opposed to those who are high performers looking to leave and exit and migrate.”
The GCCI president stated that the organisation has made contact with the university and is interested in directly assisting in the strengthening of the curriculum. Urling said that GCCI had a vested interest in improving the outlook of the university as the private sector would become the largest employer for new graduates.
Urling noted that “the university has much bigger problems and much wider problems, lots of which involve the still significant political control of the University of Guyana”. He said that the clear partisan alliance at the university significantly reduces the institution’s ability to adhere to the growth dynamics that are prevalent in society.
“I feel also that the rates of the University of Guyana are pretty low in terms of what they charge students. We need to look at charging prices that reflect the reality of running a world class institution”. Urling’s statement comes in the aftermath of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jacob Opadeyi, proposing a tuition increase citing the same rational back in March.
Urling stated that through sharing of information the university will be better equipped to register the needs of the private sector and can adjust accordingly. He said that realigning the focus of the university was one of the most pressing issues in Guyana and that the $1.7 billion budget allotment was not sufficient for the extensive work that was needed.
Asked for a comment on Urling’s statement, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand stated that the government had to remain in the background for a period of time because the university was run by a council. Minister Manickchand that it may be seen as “interference” at this point in time while noting that the council was making strides in the reform processes and that the she was pleased with the work being done so far this year.
Manickchand stated that tuition increase remained one of the most pressing university issues. She said “if you were to look at the way other universities were run certainly and you were to model this off any other university you would say it has to happen”. The minister of education however stated that no such increase would happen without speaking to all stakeholders including students.
