(Jamaica Gleaner) The University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus has revealed that it now has thousands of uncollected certificates for students with arrears.
This was disclosed today by campus registrar Dr Camille Bell Hutchinson.
She did not give a precise figure, but suggested that the uncollected certificates date back several years.
Bell Hutchinson is among a number of executives from the UWI, the University of Technology (UTech) and the Ministry of Education who are now appearing before Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee to discuss the issue of the de-registering of tertiary students.
“We have, I would say, thousands of certificates in our exam centres still that persons have gone through the system and (have) not collected,” she told lawmakers on the committee.
“I don’t know how they have managed throughout their careers,” added Bell Hutchinson.
She said it would take a project team to determine the number of uncollected certificates.
Dean-Roy Bernard, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, told the PAAC that the ministry was informed in October last year that close 800 UWI students at the UWI Mona Campus had been de-registered at the time.
Bernard said following the government’s intervention that number has decreased to about 200.
Principal of UTech, Professor Stephen Vasciannie said the institution does not have a de-registration policy.
