UWI lauded

One of the roles of any good university is to make a valuable contribution towards the development of the country in which it operates and this development especially relates to its material prosperity.

 

This is especially important for a small island developing state (SIDS) like Barbados, which has absolutely no natural resources of which it can depend on such as our neighbouring islands have and, as a result, it has to place heavy emphasis on its human resources and the knowledge and skills of these citizens. 

 

This is according to Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (U.W.I.), Cave Hill Campus, Sir George Alleyne, who was speaking yesterday during a Ceremony for the Presentation of Graduates.

 

“I would contend that it has contributed to the material well-being of the country as well. Countries like Barbados without the physical resources with which some of our neighbors are endowed has to be firmly fixed in the knowledge economy.”

 

It is through the acquisition and implementing of this knowledge from persons of all ages that enables the university to make its greatest contribution to a country. In fact, the attainment of knowledge being a driving force in development even applies to metropolitan countries like the U.S.A., said Alleyne.

 

Delivering the Chancellor’s address at the morning session of the ceremony yesterday at the U.W.I., Cave Hill Campus, he stated that this was the vision of the late Prime Minister of Barbados, Errol Barrow.

 

“As Mr. Barrow said cogently in 1968 at one of our graduation ceremonies, the University represents our best path to prosperity. Sir Arthur Lewis echoed similar sentiments when he affirmed that ‘We must train every talent we possess or condemn ourselves to poverty’.

 

However, one must be careful not to lose this valuable influx of knowledge as a result of the decreasing contribution of governments, which would only lead to the lessening of that knowledge fountain, said the Chancellor.

 

“But our University like many others is having to deal with a major paradox. The paradox is that although there is acceptance of the importance of knowledge and of the role of the University in producing it, at the same time we see shrinking contributions by governments, which taken at its face value, would diminish the production of that knowledge.”