Article Image Alt Text

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Cave Hill Campus Professor Eudine Barriteau.

Cave Hill Campus on the move

In five years UWI will be one of the strongest economic engines

The Cave Hill Campus is open to business and for business.

That clear message was sent out to the business community from Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Cave Hill Campus Professor Eudine Barriteau.
Her comments came during the Cave Hill campus’ Student Awards Ceremony 2018 held in the Roy Marshall Teaching Complex on Tuesday evening, where she commended the outstanding students who were awarded and thanked the corporate sponsors for their generosity.

She encouraged the members of the business community to cultivate greater relationships with the Cave Hill Campus through the office for Business Development.

“The Campus’ Report to Council on March 9 made it quite clear, that in spite of a challenging economic environment, the Cave Hill Campus is on the move. I invite you to get on board now, because we are getting ready for take-off. This Campus will be one of the strongest engines of economic activity in Barbados in the next five years.”

The principal revealed a renewed Memorandum with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry which provides for several areas of collaboration between the university and industry partners – regardless of their size. “These include research of the business environment; the staging of seminars and workshops; internships; participation in our annual job fair; and joint hosting of at least one policy forum annually.”

Additionally, she said that the university is looking forward to expanding the number of Entrepreneurs-in-Residence as a complement to the newly installed Professors of Practice, an initiative which she said will soon be fully unveiled.

Professor Barriteau told the large audience, which included several donors from the business community, that one of the areas in which the campus look forward to working more closely with corporate Barbados is with the UWI Dukes Agri-business Development Project as it moves into its implementation phase.

“This as you know is a multi-dimensional project that is set to revolutionise the country’s and the region’s agri-business sector. I anticipate that the roll out of this multi-million dollar project under the UWI’s Centre for Food Security and Entrepreneurship - led by Professor Leonard O’Garro – will yield for the university unprecedented recognition in the area agricultural innovation; a development which our newly established Cave Hill Office of Research and Innovation (CHORI) will be well equipped to deal with as it relates to intellectual property, patent creation and related initiatives.”

In order to meet the region’s educational needs for the future, she said curriculum development must be addressed.

“Indeed, the university realizes that workplaces are changing rapidly and meeting the requirements of those in the future requires considerable creative strategizing and planning, now.”

“At this juncture of the University’s strategic journey, it is critical that we further deepen our collaborations with our multiple partners to address current social challenges, drive economic growth and revitalise Barbados’ and the Caribbean’s development.”

Barriteau explained that a change in traditional approaches to curriculum development would see for example, a joint or dual law and medical degree to meet emerging challenges and issues such as bioterrorism, biomedical compliance, health law and health care policy.

“At Cave Hill, we have already begun that process with the establishment of a Centre for Bio-Security Studies. This interdisciplinary Centre will integrate the fields of law, medical research, international relations and public health to build regional capacity to deal with threats arising from biosecurity issues,” she revealed. (JH)

Barbados Advocate

Mailing Address:
Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc
Fontabelle, St. Michael, Barbados

Phone: (246) 467-2000
Fax: (246) 434-2020 / (246) 434-1000