Excerpt from the Jamaica Observer column published on Monday, March 07, 2022
By Jean Lowrie-Chin
We, 1970s graduates of The UWI, Mona, may not have got there were if not for the highly subsidised fees. Since then, these fees have been so steep that I remember speaking to a brilliant young lady in the business of selling motor vehicles, who explained that, after the first year at The UWI, she could not manage the fees so she was taking a break to “hustle” so she could get back to her studies.
And, of course, it is well known that those who take student loans have a rough time with repayment, while having to also take care of their basic living expenses.
Observer reporter Romardo Lyons wrote: “The medical students had to choose between Jamaica, the land of their birth, and Ukraine, which is thousands of miles away from everyone and everything they know. At The University of the West Indies, tuition for medicine is US$28,000… Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the tuition ranges from just US$3,500.”
We took a look at the Report of The UWI Chancellor’s Commission on Governance of The UWI, July 2020. The Commission on Governance of The University of the West Indies is chaired by Sir C M Dennis Byron, former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The introduction of the report noted: “The macro-environmental challenges include the political tension between the regional character of The UWI and its national remit, competition from foreign education providers, underdeveloped funding mechanisms for tertiary education throughout the region, a disturbing demographic shift in the tertiary education landscape in favour of foreign universities… With respect to financial management, the commission identified specific governance gaps which exacerbate the weak financial health of The UWI.”
The report lays out in detail these gaps, which we hope will be addressed to make higher education more accessible for our students.
Jamaica Highlights 