UWI Focus

Concerted efforts are under way at the Cave Hill Campus to make that tertiary institution the university of choice for Barbadian students.

 

Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Dr. Jennifer Obidah, says this objective is one of the reasons the Campus is playing host to some 40 secondary students from across the island this week. These young men and women are participating in the UWI 101 Programme – Experiencing University Life, which runs until July 30.

 

In an interview with the Barbados Advocate yesterday morning after the students had their orientation session, she said that parents have a lot of choices about where to send their children to further their studies, such that in addition to tertiary education institutions within and outside of the region, the University is also now competing with the degree programmes that are offered online. This, she said, requires them to be “much more proactive” in terms of letting the public know what they have to offer.

 

Additionally, she said that they will be conducting empirical research to determine if the programme has a positive impact on the enrolment at the Campus.

 

The Humanities and Education Dean added, “We are collecting data – we collected data last year and we’re going to collect data this year… the first year [of students] in two, three years they will be ready and we want to then see how many of those students are the students who participated in this week-long programme”.

 

Dr. Obidah said the programme is open to students from third, fourth and fifth form and while they have only attracted just about half the number that was enrolled last year, they firmly believe it is a benefit to the students who attend, and remain committed to keeping the programme going. Using the example of the third form students who are required to decide from now what they want to pursue at CSEC level, she explained that UWI 101 helps to guide them in making those decisions.

 

“If you want to take chemistry in fifth form you can’t start at fifth form, you would have had to start taking subjects from third form, because third form in secondary school you start to choose the strand. It is really helping them and helping the secondary schools. The secondary schools can tell them about the subjects but they don’t have the clear idea that the university would have,” the Dean said.

 

Her comments came as she indicated that the programme, which is being fully funded by the Campus this year, will not only expose the participants to courses from every faculty represented on the Campus, but also afford them the opportunity to spend one night in the Halls of Residence. (JRT)