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THE UWI Financing DEBATE

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Submitted by Ellis Chase

University of the West indies, Cave Hill

There has been something of a debate on the funding of higher education in Barbados recently. As is typical, and strange for a well educated country, clear facts and hard information have largely been absent, and persons seem to be taking political and ideological positions. The Nation newspaper recently ran an article about UWI finances after a public pronouncement by the Finance and Economic Affairs Minister. The article prompted me to seek out some hard information on UWI finances, and I was shocked at how hard it was to get some. Finally, after some wheeling and dealing I got my hands on the UWI, Cave Hill audited financials for the period 1999 to 2009.

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188 responses to “THE UWI Financing DEBATE”

  1. ac Avatar
    ac

    the govt don’t even have money to fix the infrasturcture but can affor FREE education to every body. Wuh kind of economics is that! can somebody in govt. tell the natives the truth”The bread basket is empty” No more FREE lunch!

  2. lemuel Avatar
    lemuel

    To BAFBFP:
    Thanks for seeing what most here can not see. If we looked at it closely we should only need 5 ministries to run Barbados. The other functions could be done through a designated desk officer and some clerical support.

    To Uneducated:
    What is up about people should have upper second to do graduate work. Are you really saying that there are not people with only a pass who are brighter than you and have done graduate work beyond the masters level. Give up this stupidity and talk some sense on the blog. If I were UWI , based on what you contributed here, I would take back my degrees; then again they belong to the people of Barbados because you did not pay one red cent for them.

  3. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    I would suggest that it is time for Government to have a long hard look at UWI at Cave Hill – its policies, its expenditures, the quality of its students, staff and senior administrators, the fidelity of those same administrators to the statutes and ordinances and the ‘system’ of education it provides. It might also scrutinse certain Faculties. For example, why is it that so many senior people in Law have left? Why have certain courses, eg Poverty Law with its legal aid clinic for the underprivileged, been dropped? Why does its Dean, a non-academic, continue to function as Law Librarian? Why is the morale of the Faculty at Cave Hill at an all time low? I, for one, am grateful that these figures have been published. It opens the door to a very necessary process of scrutiny and accountability.

    Hill Campus has escaped public scrutiny and I, for one, am grateful that its income/expenditure figures have now been published. ‘Centre of Excellence’ indeed: isn’t it time someone really did have a good look at it all
    Hill campus has escaped public scrutiny and I, for one, am glad that its income/expediture

  4. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Dear Editor…please excise my second paragraph, the result of a jumble in the box provided for the comment and my inexperience!

  5. poor Class Avatar
    poor Class

    Robert Ross, on this middle/upper class blog places like UWI are above critique.

    You can beat up on the administration, civil service, sanitations, NHC. UDC. RDC anything like that. But UWI hell no!

  6. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    And the UWI debt will be serviced from the NIS … Surprised anyone? The claim of course is that education is an investment. Well what a nice sounding sound bite, but scratch the surface of it all and the smell will become evident …!

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @BAFBFP

    It seems we have more ideologues than pragmatists running the educational system.

  8. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    David

    I have been trying to think of ONE pragmatist in the entire arena and am drawing blanks … Maybe I am NOT trying hard enough … hmmmmm!

  9. David Avatar
    David

    The current reality which exposes the paucity of research at UWI sums it up in a today’s world. For example the push to shift the energy base of Barbados from fossil to RE, the UWI should be at the centre of it; not politicians.

  10. To The Point Avatar
    To The Point

    @David
    I agree with you. UWI lecturers must get up of their behind and produce. We should be producing teas from our local bushes instead of importing, We need to know the quantity of local bushes and plants to use. What are our post graduates and doctoral students producing? We have some highly paid persons on the hill producing nothing. We need some serious research. What has happened to the research that was being undertaken by the professor, cant remeber his name on the solo dryers among other things. I would like to install solort pannels to provide electricty for my home, dont u think that I should be able to call UWI and ask the amt of panels that i would need based on my usage?

  11. David Avatar
    David

    @to the point

    Here is a research project for the hill: evaluating Bajan sportsmen from Primary to Beyond. Sure the BOA will be willing to fund it.

  12. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David | September 20, 2012 at 12:30 AM |
    “The current reality which exposes the paucity of research at UWI sums it up in a today’s world. For example the push to shift the energy base of Barbados from fossil to RE, the UWI should be at the centre of it; not politicians.”

    That is the kind of ROI the country should be getting for the billions of dollars taxpayers have sacrificed and forced to contribute over the years.

    You are also making out an excellent case for a much slimmed down Cabinet from 19 to 10 to go with Caswell’s recommendation.

    The miller’s wager is still on that by September 2013 Bajan students would be expected to contribute 50% to their investment in tertiary education at UWI either by way of personal financing or through an expanded student loan facility.
    Carson C C, please don’t hold me to it. You now appreciate the advice the miller was giving your hard headed party leader with the Pre-May 2012 elections. You will be sitting pretty all like now and having a laugh at Onions, the miller and the Prodigal Son. Enuff of that!

  13. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    My Two children are there now and I ain’ got the money to pay 50% of the EC… The threat is good though because it gives them new cause to aim for the best possible grades and avoid the devil taking the hindmost …!

  14. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    The last researcher of a scientific nature (Black Belly Sheep), with a public profile is now an administrator, CEO of the BIDC after having served in Canada as a High Commissioner. Now what does any of this have to do with Black Belly Sheep …. Stupse!

  15. Observing (...) Avatar
    Observing (…)

    @David
    It seems we have more ideologues than pragmatists running the educational system.”

    Bingo! I can think of another word beginning with “i” but hey.

    No one wants to touch education. Yet no one wants to use creativity and ingenuity to reform it so that it serves us well at this critical moment of our development. This applies to all parties and governments.

    Observing.

  16. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Observing (…) call the people on the Hill idiots ….! MURDA … This man want locking up …!

  17. JENNIFER YEARWOOD Avatar
    JENNIFER YEARWOOD

    POOR CLASS, BAF/BFP……FUNDAMENTALIST LACK-OF -THINKING IS NOT ONLY THE RESERVE OF THE RELIGIOUS NUTBAGS…IT PERMEATES EVERY IOTA OF LIFE IN OUR CARIBBEAN FISHBOWL-GENE POOLS…VEVER TRIED TO EXPRESS A DIFFERING PHILOSOPHY ON ”PROUD 2 BE TRINBAGONIAN”…?.. SELF APPOINTED”MESSIAHS” / LEADERS OF THE LEMINGS PROGNOSTICATE A PACK OF TRIPE AS INARGUABLE ”FACT”..DARE TO DIFFER AND A VERITABLE POGROM IS LAUNCHED BY THOSE IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION TO STIR UP THE MADDING CROWD OF BLINKERED LEMINGS……DONt DARE TO EXPRESS O N E CRITIQUE OF TRNIDAD…YOUR EXPRESSIONS MUST, DE RIGUER, BE RELECTIVE OF ROSE COLOURED PSYCHOBABBLE…INCREDIBLE….CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY….I SHUDDER TO THINK THAT WE IN 2013 ARE SO CLUELESS AND MORONIC WHEN IT COMES TO MATTERS SOCIO POLITICO.. A COCKNEY GRAVE DIGGER CAN DISCOURESE MORE PROFOUNDLY THAN SOME OF OUR ”GRADUANDS”…PLAYINGGOD….1 EYE MAN IN BLIND MAN COUNTRY

  18. JENNIFER YEARWOOD Avatar
    JENNIFER YEARWOOD

    HEAR THIS…AM IN SURINAME AND DISGUSTED AT THE E V I D E N T RAPE OF THE SOCIETY BY THE CHINESE JUGGERNAUT…SOON MANDARIN WILL BE THE OBBLIGATORY OFFICIAL LANGUAGE..THEYve DESCENDED LIKE LOCUSTS IN THEIR FEEDING FRENZY…CHANGING THE ”FACE” OF THIS POOR, PUN INTENDED, CARIBBEAN PARDNER.RAPE THEM OF THEIR RESOURCES,THROW IN A CARROT OF LONGLOAN TO CONSTRUCT POOR QUALITY STRUCTURES WITH CHINESE IMPORTED LABOUR..,IMPOVERISHING YR LOCAL WORKFORCE, AND THE NEW SLAVERY-2013 IS OFF AND RUNNING….HAS IT HIT BIMSHIRE YET?..PLASTIC AND GLASS , ENVIRONMENTALLY UNACCEPTABLE CRASS STRUCTURES PROLIFERATE THE LANDSCAPES…SUPERMARKETS, CASINOS,GAMBLING DENS, BORDELLOS….NON CHINESE DISBARRED!…, CHINESE BANKS, NON CHINESE DISBARRED,, …THE RAPACIOUS CHINESE TROLL THE WATERS INTERNATIONALLY FOR THE SMELL OF POLITICAL ”BLOOD”…IE 3RD WORLD EASILYCORRUPTABLE POLITICIANS WHO RESPOND TO CHINESE CASH AND TURN A BLIND EYE TO CUSTOMSETC REQUIREMENTS…EVER NOTICED THE PROLIFERATION,SUDDENLY,, OF CHINESE TAKE AWAY OUTLETS,,,BY THE SCORE…6 CLOSED DOWN BY THE HEALTH DEPT LAST WEEK FOR ROACHES/ RATS/ROTTEN FOODINSANITARY SPACES ETC ETC .SUPERMARKETS BY THE DOZEN ETCHAS THE CHINESE JUGGERNAUT TAPPED INTO THE BAJAN INVASION YET…..STAND BY FOR CARCINOGENICS/ PLASTICS BY THE SCORE GENERAL JUNK..LASTING AS LONG AS THE RED HOUSE FIRE IN TRINIDAD…”.WE ” LOOKED FOR IT….CONTENT TO BE CONSUMERS RATHER THAN PRODUCERS…OUR APATYIN THE FACE OF THELOCUSTS…WHERE ARE OUR UWI GRDUANDS, OUR THINKERS, OUR QUESTIONNERS…AT THE NEAREST LIMING SPOT?

  19. Gabriel Tackle Avatar
    Gabriel Tackle

    In today’s Sun newspaper the President of the Guild of Undergraduates is mobilising support for maintaining the status quo ante for students of the UWI,Cave Hill.I recommend he seek the support of the alumni and further as a possible strategy,include a day away from work of all alumni in protest against this incompetent cabinet of liars and deceivers.Further,as another strategy,seek the support of the private sector in withholding tax payments to central government as was threatened in Sandy’s administration.This government has to go.It cannot be trusted and it has no vision for Barbados other than to pauperize the country by its ineptitude.The country’s interest is much more important than party interest.Fatted calf mentality is a no no in this country.

  20. David Avatar
    David

    It is interesting the Opposition MP Dale Marshall referred to a case in Trinidad where Prime Minister Kamla Is being sued because she made a promise. the government promised that education was a sacred cow, the same occurred in the case of CLICO, it seems some citizens may now be prepared to sue a government if it reneges on a promise. We are now living in interesting times.

  21. JUST ASKING Avatar
    JUST ASKING

    The Students must protest this nonsense
    Let the Marches begin. Let the speeches begin
    Let the protest begin. It aint going down so. The Government must retrack –WHEEL AND COME AGAIN !
    Shades of Egypt , Syria , Libya ??

  22. JUST ASKING Avatar
    JUST ASKING

    The Government can be sued.Any ‘body’ can be sued.
    The problem with UWI is that 70% of the intake is women. The lack of critical thinking is evident. Gossip does not advance a country. People with ideas and who are willing to risk do.I accept men as leaders

  23. David Avatar
    David

    Shades of Greekesk ENTITILEMENT you think?

  24. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL
    Wait David …how long has Bushie been telling wunna bout the brass bowlery going on at UWI?

    …..amazing that we can only see the problem when we done brek… Steupssss

    We could have sorted out this shiite back in 2007 before Hillary really got carried away with his ego…..

    Let we see how long we will take now before we recognize the danger of our water distribution exposure….. Probably when we are reduced to drinking toilet water…..

  25. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    WUNNA CANT UNDERSTAND? IT DONE!
    Jesus Is Coming Soon

    Troublesome times are here, filling men’s hearts with fear
    Freedom we all hold dear now is at stake
    Humbling your hearts to God saves from the chastening rod
    Seek the way pilgrims trod, Christians awake

    Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon
    Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound
    All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies
    Going where no one dies, heavenward bound

    Troubles will soon be o’er, happy forevermore
    When we meet on that shore, free from all care
    Rising up in the sky, telling this world goodbye
    Homeward we then shall fly, glory to share

    Oh, Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon
    Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound
    All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies
    Going where no one dies, heavenward bound
    Jesus is coming soon, morning or night or noon
    Many will meet their doom, trumpets will sound
    All of the dead shall rise, righteous meet in the skies
    Going where no one dies, heavenward bound
    Heavenward bound, heavenward bound
    Oak Ridge Boys – Jesus Is Coming Soon

  26. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Who gone and dig up this old thread now … Stupse. My views back then don’ quite sound like me today … I have mellowed a bit. Man wuh happening here atol atol …

    Look Hilary will not change, the Administration will not release any of the seventeen Parliamentarians nor volunteer a cut in salary, agencies like the Productivity Council, the Service Excellence people, the Constituency Councils, the Army will not go away, Ministries will not be down graded to departments, the Courts will not get any faster … and I agree with most of it. People need to bring salaries home so that they can spend on items and services and a reduction in number of bread winners will result in a reduction of the monies available for business activity to take place.

    All that I am concerned with is the earning of foreign exchange and doing everything possible to encourage this activity.

  27. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Georgie Porgie wrote “Jesus Is Coming Soon”

    Soon could be a few hours from now, a few years from now or a 100 years from now…….comparatively speaking.

    Whats your best guesstimate? In our lifetime maybe?

  28. ac Avatar
    ac

    David August 18,201at:49 AM
    It is interesting the Opposition MP Dale Marshall referred to a case in Trinidad where Prime Minister Kamla Is being sued because she made a promise. the government promised that education was a sacred cow, the same occurred in the case of CLICO, it seems some citizens may now be prepared to sue a government if it reneges on a promise. We are now living in interesting times..
    …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
    What makes a man go so far?
    Wayne Kublalsingh, 53, environmental activist and literature lecturer at UWI, who holds a PhD from Oxford University, shows no signs of letting up on his hunger strike, now in its 11th day. Kublalsingh, who has not eaten or drunk anything for the past 11 days, has vowed to continue his fast on behalf of the Highway Reroute Movement until Government “keeps its promise” to agree to an independent technical evaluation of the $7.2 billion-dollar highway from San Fernando to Point Fortin and to halt road works until the evaluation is complete.
    Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar has gone on record as saying that while she feels personal grief at the selfinflicted suffering of Kublalsingh, it is false to say she reneged on a promise made to him. She maintained that following meetings with him she already met the demands of his group; suspended work on the Mon Desir portion of the highway; appointed a technical review which was rejected by the Highway Reroute Movement; and could no longer “give into the demands of Wayne Kublalsingh to repeat the process to “stop a project that would benefit hundreds of thousands of citizens for generations to come” and put the State in a position of being sued by contractors.
    HAYDEN KUBLALSINGH, who has closely associated himself with his brother’s struggle, tells IRA MATHUR about the man who has grabbed the attention of the nation by risking his life for a cause.

  29. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Hants

    The length of time that man kind has walked the earth is but a blink of an eye in geologic time …

  30. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Bush Tea | August 18, 2013 at 2:08 PM |
    “Let we see how long we will take now before we recognize the danger of our water distribution exposure….. Probably when we are reduced to drinking toilet water…..”

    Very good point there Bushie!
    You have reestablished my confidence (after the other toilet debate) in you and redeem your intellectual soul, LOL!!

    It is often bragged that taxpayers’ funded university education has been the greatest contributor to Barbados social and economic ‘advancement’. I beg to differ somewhat.
    It is the previous planners’ (many without the benefit of a university degree at taxpayers’ expense) early recognition of the need to invest in comprehensive provision of public utilities and important public goods like access to cheap potable water, basic public health facilities and universal basic education even to secondary level.

    Even the other utilities, although in private hands, were well supported and regulated to ensure Barbadians had access to these services like electricity and telephone from very early in the 1950’s and 60’s.

    Here we have a potentially massive problem (as Bushie has identified with aplomb foresight and perspicuity) that could threaten the economic survival of the country and wipe out many of the gains that allowed Barbados to be highly placed on the UNDP HD index.

    Potable water in a country with little surface water or no rivers is the most important commodity for clean hygienic living. The country needs to get its water distribution, waste disposal and treatment challenges sorted out without further delay or it could be in for a rude awakening.

    And this is not a partisan politically inspired concern neither is it a doom and gloom criticism but a fundamental realization that the country is building up potentially serious problems in its gullies and on its shores. Check the state of the coral reefs for ample evidence of the degradation caused by mismanaged waste disposal and human activities inimical to sustainable living.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    The issue of water security and preparedness is a topic the BU family has highlighted over the years. Of course we have the apologists who will frame the concerns in a political context. The folly!

  32. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Bajans once believed that the coral stone under the soil was a magical super filter and the sea “does carway evahting yuh truh in it”.

    Now “higher learning” has taught us that we have an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

    Barbados needs to pay exceptional attention to our drinking water and sewerage disposal.

    280,000 people (plus tourists)on 166 square miles.

    I see the Police enforcing law and order in Bridgetown. I hope the Sanitation authority will do some serious cleaning as well.

  33. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    David wrote “frame the concerns in a political context.”

    Clean drinking water cannot be in any political context.

    It is a necessity of life and it does not matter WHO did what yesterday. It has to be dealt with now and forever.

  34. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Hants | August 18, 2013 at 2:40 PM |
    Georgie Porgie wrote “Jesus Is Coming Soon”

    Whats your best guesstimate? In our lifetime maybe?
    THE GEO-POLITICAL SITUATION SUGGESTS IT COULD BE IN OUR LIFETIME

  35. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    You know Georgie if you had the ability to jump back seventy or ninety years ago before the start of and during the two European Dominion Wars (referred to as World Wars), the sentiments would have been exactly the same …. And there were a number of “Pestilences” that damned near wiped out the whole of Europe and the Spanish Flu, and the West is still around. The West is at the centre of all that is happening today, and you can be assured that the West will be around for generations to come, even if it is playing a subordinate role. I say this to you because of your profound interest in Western doctrine … 🙂

  36. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    BAFFY
    I AM NOT INTERESTED IN WESTERN DOCTRINE BUT IN THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

  37. ac Avatar
    ac

    there are those christian disciples who are always propagating this statement” That Jesus is coming soon” there need to be sound evidence attaching such statement as being said by Jesus. Until then these so-called disciples are spouting a false Claim and and distrubting it as an actual statement made by Jesus , Until these disciples bring emperical evedience to such a claim such as time! and date and year one can consider this claim as false and misleading information and a bold faced lie bordering on propaganda! with misinformation and deceit. By law these so called disciples can be brought before a court as proof to such statement since these statements are being presented as fact and truthful.to different audiences and nations worldwide..

  38. BAFBFP Avatar
    BAFBFP

    Sorry Georgie, my mistake. I saw them both as one and the same ..

  39. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ac

    Christianity is based on belief in things for which there is no proof. It is called faith.

    If a Christian believes Jesus is coming soon he does not have to provide you with proof.

  40. ac Avatar
    ac

    hants faith is by doing .and doing and understanding the Word of GOD> Therefore it is from the WORD or the bible, that the christain disciple must provide such proof either by act or deed. Note Gp in his statement SAID >>SOON> so therfore the WORD SOON .must be somewhere in the Bible content or context to which he applies the statement. Jesus is coming SOON, therfore if one can make such a blatant statement which can affect a person daily way of life it is only Fair and prudent that those making such statements show PROOF.that is as applicable to the word “soon”

  41. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    ac wrote “if one can make such a blatant statement which can affect a person daily way of life.”

    If a statement like that can affect your daily way of life then you have a problem.

  42. David Avatar
    David

    Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    King James Version

  43. ac Avatar
    ac

    hants u have been on BU long eenough to know that the christain disciples have always connect world affairs to end times and the Coming of Jesus so yes that is where the affect of end times and ones daily live interact. according to GP his statement is conclusive that all that is now happening is a sign that JESUS is coming SOON. howver the Bible does not define SOON as when! expect that the christain disciple have used world affairs to joined them to together arriving at the conclusion SOON.
    Soon can be described as .mostlikely to happen. Happening Now,, , however given the disciple premise and projections one would most likely to belive SOON to be NOW ! not in the distant future, But where is the proof and how and WHENis soon.

  44. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    Sometimes it is better to hush.

  45. ac Avatar
    ac

    david they are many definitions of Faith in the BIBLE, it was a question that was of great debate throughtout the new church, James 2 vs 14 describe FAITH as that of doing good deeds.
    hebrews 11 describe Faith as things we cannot see that is including those things that are relevant to believing in GOD,.

  46. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ac

    Sometimes it is better to hush.

  47. ac Avatar
    ac

    Hants sometimes it is better to confront and not run from a snarling dog,, now u talk about faith but can only regurgitate what u heard but cannot definel,, so i guess it is easier for u to hush,,
    when a person makes a statemnent a ,loud and bold and one of conviction. one should be able and ready to defend their words either by action or Deed. like telling ac to hush is taking the easy way out, However since U HANTS stuck YOUR noise in the topic, How would u define FAITH. i guess you would say HUSH > to which ac say YOU are Right, HUSH

  48. David Avatar
    David

    Now back to the real issue. The UWI Student Guild to hold meetings to plan protest. Let us see if the government has the guts to stand their ground. Wonder how the government M.P.s feel when they red he regional press “Barrow legacy gone”.

  49. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ac,

    Clearly you have no faith in me and David or you would hush.lol

  50. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    DAVID & HANTS
    The doctrine of the second coming of Christ takes up a large part of the Bible.
    The second coming of Christ can biblically be divided into two phases, the second of which is described in great deal in the OT, WHERE IT IS CLEARLY LINKED TO SITUATIONS INVOLVING ISRAEL.

    The second phase of the second coming of Christ is thought to preceed the second phase by the great tribulation which lasts seven years. Signs which indicate that the onset of the tribulation as imminent should alert persons that the onset of the rapture is even more imminent.

    That is my understanding in a nutshell. BU has already uploaded a more detailed powwerpoint on this mater in December 2009 0r 2010

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