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To Barbadians ALL – Sir Hilary Beckles the TRUTH!

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Submitted by Douglas
Sir Hilary Beckles Principal of UWI, Cave Hill
Sir Hilary Beckles Principal of UWI, Cave Hill

I write this out of a concern that we are not hearing the FULL TRUTH about this issue of the FUNDING of UWI education. As I read the comments of the Principal and Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary McDonald Beckles, I Cry shame on a man I formerly respected. As one of his former students I admired his brilliance and indeed while I have lost respect for this man, I must admit he did much to transform many aspects of the Cave Hill Campus. He built buildings, indeed monuments. I did hear staff, teaching and other, complain that you could not question him, he alone, had all the answers. I understand he brooks no opposition.

I was listening to many callers overs the past few months, and most recently when I heard a Government Minister trying to rationalise the decision to have students pay part of the cost of their education at UWI. I asked myself, how did we get here? Those who support the Government say this should have been in place a long time ago. Those who oppose the Government say students should not pay. We need to hear from the Minister of Education. He did not even touch this in the Estimates Debate. I have been trying to understand why we have reached this point, and have been asking questions of all kinds of people. They have all left me with more questions than answers and I therefore want to pose some questions to the University, its Principal, Deputy Principal and all the senior managers as well as the Minister of Education (and those who went before him).

Continue reading – Beckles II, Beckles III, Beckles IV and Beckles V

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96 responses to “To Barbadians ALL – Sir Hilary Beckles the TRUTH!”

  1. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    Pachamama

    Specify a bit that misrepresents you.

  2. Peltdownman Avatar
    Peltdownman

    Right on Ana! It’s time someone pulled Pacha’s head out of his pompous ass!

  3. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    David, April 3, 2014 at 2:06 PM:

    “Would like to read some discussion about what some think of the matriculation dumbimg down of entry requirements at Cave Hill.”

    Agreed. Would be good information. The kind of information needed to make informed policy decisions.

    Two other bits of information would also be telling.

    First, what is the drop-out rate at the Cave Hill campus? That’s to say, what proportion of students are financed by taxpayers for one or two years, and then never graduate? Whatever the number, that is a net loss to taxpayers. Simply put, it is money wasted.

    Second, it would be interesting to hear from faculty members at the Cave Hill campus who have also taught undergraduates in any other university (in any discipline), how they rate UWI undergraduates relative to other undergraduates outside the region. 

    “A graduate in every household” is not a policy. It is, at best, a T-shirt slogan or a car bumper sticker.

  4. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    David

    What’s wrong with matriculation? Here in the US, one is allowed to matriculate from the community – college to a four year university if one meets the criteria of accumulating a specific number of credits. It is the easy way to avoid taking the SAT, the standardized test required for university admission.

  5. JRB Avatar
    JRB

    I think some of you may want to read these annual reports.

     

    UWI CAVE HILL Reports 2012 – 2013

    PAST UWI CAVE HILL Reports

    http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/news/reports/default.asp

  6. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Let me make something here clear before the BU critics jump all over me: matriculation applies to specific institutions of learning; as far as my understanding goes. But a good SAT score would get you into the university of your choice but this all depends on the addition criteria the institution is looking for.

  7. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    @JRB

    Read that. It’s got a lot of “context” and the usual number of other weasel words. So far I’ve got 11 “enhances” and an amazing 44 “delivers” but only 2 “stakeholders”. When I have time I’ll look for the “robusts” and the “ownerships” and the “speaks to” and all the other signifiers that you are dealing with someone who doesn’t have the slightest clue how to write English.

    But it didn’t tell me squat about the drop-out rate at Cave Hill.

    And I wonder what that report cost, and who wrote it, and who paid for it.

  8. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Question: I wonder if the professors at the University of the West Indies are given the latitude to design the course syllabus? This I believe is an important component in mapping out what the professor want the student to learn and how the professor will help the student learn. It can also determine the quality of education the student is get in.

  9. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    Is it true (I don’t know; genuine question) that a large proportion of applicants to the Cave Hill campus from within Barbados have to pay to do a foundation course in English or pass an English proficiency test?

    How can this possibly be the case?

    Do 18 and 19 year-old university applicants in Finland and Sweden and Germany and France have to take proficiency tests in Finnish and Swedish and German and French? Aren’t they supposed to be able to write proficiently  in the language of their schools system by the age of about 10?

  10. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    @JRB

    Read that. It’s got a lot of “context” and the usual number of other weasel words. So far I’ve got 11 “enhances” and an amazing 44 “delivers” but only 2 “stakeholders”. When I have time I’ll look for the “robusts” and the “ownerships” and the “speaks to” and all the other signifiers that you are dealing with someone who doesn’t have the slightest clue how to write English.

    But it didn’t tell me squat about the drop-out rate at Cave Hill.

    And I wonder what that report cost, and who wrote it, and who paid for it.

  11. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Ana Hidalgo

    In America, kids who are out of high school and on their way to community college, are given a Math as well as an English entry test to determining where they at. Now, if it is found that they’re are below the projected standard, let’ s say in English. They’re then placed in a Developmental English Course to up they standards, before they can move on to the more credited courses.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @Domkey

    Why don’t you read with comprehension? The BU comment was for us to discuss the probable dumb down of entry requirements matriculation at Cave Hill.

  13. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    David

    It appears as though I have gotten under your skin? And if I did? I sincerely apologize. Brother my power of comprehension isn’t as good as it ought to be. So I ask that you bear with St. Leonard’s boy, as he tries to discourse with Bajan academic excellence that he really hasn’t any business being amongst.

  14. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Thanks to Ann for wielding Excalibur.

    Now IF Beckes is SO concerned about the poor and underprivileged WHY
    (1) did he allow Poverty Law to be dropped where law students provided free legal services to the underprivileged and
    (2) doesn’t he set up and otherwise enhance a hardship fund for poor students who will be fee-challenged? Might Sagicor fund that – the ‘Sagicor Fund’?

    Fact is that Beckles line has consistently been ‘spend spend’ because only by spending do you generate income.

    (I don’t want to cross swords with H Austin yet again but there are a number of aspects of his post above where he betrays a woeful ignorance. IF he challenges me I will happily say how.)

  15. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Sorry Ana – ‘Ana’ not ‘Ann’

  16. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    Is it not clear that UWI Cave Hill has been converted into a money-making Ponzi scheme that has been built around the idiotic policy of the Barbados government to provide unconditional “free education” to Bajans – no matter the cost, the numbers, or the quality?

    Even more idiotic, is that the government essentially allows UWI to manage the whole system…..the student numbers admitted; the time they can stay, the quality of intake….the cost per student….

    Wuh if you were Sir Hill, would you not bring in Community College rejects? Dummies, etc,…?
    Would you not want a graduate in every household?

    ….and why would you care that the alumni cannot even compete for local positions against ordinary foreigners…?….far less internationally…?

  17. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    A scan of the UWI Strategic Plan supports the view that the government was not fully embraced as a key partner.

    http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/resources/documents/reports/uwi_strategic_plan.pdf

  18. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Bush Tea

    Yes – in a small community like this – equal partners. If it could be taken previously that the University would act honourably for the national good that premise withered on the retirement of Sir Keith Hunte.

  19. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Earlier I spoke of the mediocrity to be found now in the Faculty of Law.. To this may be added the idiocy of appointments being made of people from overseas to fill posts which might readily be filled by people here on a part-time basis with no additional costs in terms of health care, superannuation and other benefits as in the case of full time staff.

    Why, eg, would you want to bring someone here from UK, as in one case, who had never actually held a lecturing (as distinct from a teaching) post and who had never actually taught the subject he was appointed to teach when there are plenty of people here with far greater experience? And Beckles says penury is all the Government’s fault??

  20. Dropping in Avatar
    Dropping in

    Dropping in | April 4, 2014 at 2:51 AM |

    Tom Adams correctly deported Ralph Gonzales its time we deport Tennyson Joseph. We are told he is teacher at UWI. Pray tell when does he get time to teach when he spends his days on Brass tacks and writing garbage in the media criticizing the country that hosts him and pays his salary at UWee.

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @droppjng in aka waiting

    You are a jackass.

  22. Well Well Avatar
    Well Well

    Ross……how can anyone expect any better from so called educated people at UWI whose only aspiration is having a pimp title out of buckingham palace, in my view they continue to go around in circles and take the whole damn population along with them for the ride, what i consider beyond criminal is that they continue to take generations of young minds with them on this not so merry go round, that way not one thing changes. As i said on a previous thread, only the weak-minded males and females find themselves in these top positions in society, weak and easily manipulated to keep the dumbing down of the Caribbean people intact.

  23. Yagga Rowe Avatar
    Yagga Rowe

    Dropsy
    from
    Dropping or Waiting

  24. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    Is it the case that undergraduate applicants to the Cave Hill campus of UWI have to pay for a foundation course in English, or pass an English proficiency test?

  25. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    Can a Cave Hill faculty member tell us: what are the benchmarks for a passing grade on the English proficiency test at UWI?

    How do those benchmarks rank on any standard PISA scale, relative to the English-language proficiency of undergraduate candidates in the UK or New Zealand or Jamaica or Canada?

  26. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    I’m really curious about this. Does anyone know of any other serious university in the world (the entire world) at which applicants for bachelor’s degrees are required to take a proficiency test in the language of their school system?

  27. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Ana Hidalgo

    At the associate – degree level yes but at the bachelor’s level no. Because at the bachelor’s level, one would have already taken the SAT’S or matriculate from the two year community – college, to four year bachelor’s program offered at the university.

  28. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    Thanks, Dompey. That’s what normally happens in Barbados, is it?

  29. Ana Hidalgo Avatar
    Ana Hidalgo

    Do Barbadian applicants to bachelor’s degrees at the Cave Hill campus of the Uiniversity of the West Indies have to take a proficiency test in English before they can be admitted to the university?

    It’s a very simple question.

  30. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    @ Ana Hidalgo
    Guidelines for Proficiency Test
    ALL applicants to the University, unless exempted (see below), are required to take a Proficiency Test in English. The application for the test may be obtained at the same time as the normal application form from the Student Affairs Section at Cave Hill, Mona or St. Augustine, or from Resident Tutors or University Representatives in Non-Campus Countries.

    Who is exempted from the Test?

    Possession of one of the following will exempt you from taking the test:
    Grade 1 in CXC General Proficiency in English A
    Grade 1 or 2 in CAPE Communications Studies Examination
    Grade A in the Cambridge GCE ‘O’ Level examination
    Grade A or B in the Alternative Ordinary (AO) General Paper
    Entrants to the Faculty of Law, who already hold a degree or a pass in English Literature at Advanced Level.

  31. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Ana Hidalgo

    As far as my knowledge goes: the Developmental English Course is done at the two year community college level. I do not know of any university here in the state of Connecticut, which offers a Developmental English Course to assist the freshman with his or her writing skills.

  32. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Stupse, anyone familiar with the American university system knows that WRITING forms part of the mandatory Core Curriculum at most american universities including Quinnipiac University, which is suppose to be one of the top ranked schools in Connecticut.

    “Quinnipiac’s liberal arts philosophy is embodied by our University curriculum: academic offerings in disciplines ranging from writing to biology to history. To get ready for their course work at Quinnipiac, students practice the fundamentals of good writing in two composition classes, equaling 6 credits. “

  33. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Enuff

    That is why the SAT’S eliminates the above and below criteria. Or the matriculation from the two year community college, to the four year university. In other words, by the time an applicant applies to the university, he or she should have already met the standard criteria for English proficiency.

  34. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Enuff

    Quinnipiac University is located in the state of Connecticut where I reside. And the issue isn’t whether or not Quinnipiac University offers a Liberal Arts Program because the leading university in state of Connecticut (UCOnn) also offers a Liberal Arts Program. But try getting into these two universities without taking the SAT’S?

  35. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Enuff

    With twenty credits in the Liberal Arts and Science Associate Degree Program at a community college. You’re allowed to matriculate to (UConn) University of Connecticut four year bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science Degree Program, geared towards teaching. Bypassing the SAT’S.

  36. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Ana Hidalgo
    I attended UWI in the 70’s. In those days all students had to pass a course called USE OF ENGLISH. I know of men who passed all their courses in the medicine program who did not get their MBBS degree until they passed USE OF ENGLISH.
    The course included logic, argument etc
    It was quite fun I thought.

  37. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    If the University courses are taught in English it makes sense for students to have a good command of the English language.

    How else would they understand what a Lecturer is saying and what is written in a text book?

    @ Georgie Porgie, allways good to see you blogging.

    I am sure you would agree that with all the new fangle teaching methods today reading,writing and arithmetic is still the foundation on which to build an education.

    This is interesting.

    http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2013/06/23/why_johnny_cant_sign_his_name_cursive_writing_goes_the_way_of_the_quill.html

  38. enuff Avatar
    enuff

    Thank you GP. It seems that Ana Hidalgo is confusing UWI proficiency test with TOEFL lmao.

    @ Dompey
    I am merely stating that many american universities require their undergraduates to take a writing course. SATs do not exempt you from the courses, you can however take a test and be exempted. Sounds familiar?
    Note at UWI a Grade 1 at CXC is required though grades 2 and 3 are considered passes. Are you trying to tell me that one can pass CXC English but is not proficient in English? What does that tell you about the content and aim of the test? I don’t see how a multiple choice SAT exam proves you are good writing a composition.

    Yale is the leading uni in your state by the way.

  39. Tudor Avatar
    Tudor

    I am surprised to hear that UWI requires students to pass an English proficiency test. I worked in a large Barbadian Company with a number of highly qualified bajans holding degrees from UWI who knew nothing about the past tense (ed) nor the correct usage of “there, they & their”.

  40. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    tHANKS HANTS
    I FOLLOW YOUR POSTS TOO

  41. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Ana Hid

    You asked two questions above, one about drop out rates, the other about comparative quality rooted in staff experience.

    The second question refers to staff who have teaching experience in other universities. I just wonder how many there are with that kind of experience. Judging by the staff list in Law I would think very few indeed.

    My experience of law students profession- wise is that they are no better nor worse than other graduates I meet travelling around. BUT academic standards have fallen everywhere so that’s not saying much. Some would say (as me) that the move to a semester system at UWI spelt the death knell for understanding as distinct from the accumulation of facts. How, eg, can you possibly ‘teach’ and ‘understand’ Jurisprudence in 10 weeks? When will they understand that it’s not a guided tour of what jurists have supposedly said and that reasoning underpins every subject on the curriculum?

  42. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Get real Beckles April 2 at 9:32 pm. “Would you also believe that Beckles described the Cabinet as intellectually challenged in a University meeting ?????? Amazing indeed when most of them are graduates of the same UWI.”

    Some people graduate with first class honours. Some graduate with a mere pass.

    Can anybody tell me how many of this current Cabinet have earned first class honours.

    And how many got a bare pass?

  43. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Ana Hidalgo April 3, 2014 at 3:38 PM “First, what is the drop-out rate at the Cave Hill campus? That’s to say, what proportion of students are financed by taxpayers for one or two years, and then never graduate? Whatever the number, that is a net loss to taxpayers. Simply put, it is money wasted.”

    Not really you know Ana. This university drop-out (not from UWI) managed to pay $24,000+ in income tax last year, $5,000+ in NIS and an un-calculated amount in VAT.

    We must not assume that university drop-out=net loss to taxpayers…money wasted.

    I am not defending nor promoting dropping out but didn’t Bill Gates drop out and nobody can claim that he is a net loss to taxpayers. Simply put…money wasted.

  44. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    And for those who are complaining about the buildings built at Cave Hill…understand that when Hillary is ready to go home he won’t stuff the buildings in his pocket as he walks out the door.

    The buildings are ours, and our children’s, and our children’s children paid for (now and in the future) with our our money, our labour.

  45. dompey Avatar
    dompey

    Enuff

    Thanks for your information on Yale. I just love the way in which Ya’ll continue to underestimate as well as insult my intelligence. And for your information: I have visited Yale on numerous occasions, thank you.

  46. zena phillips Avatar
    zena phillips

    “I have been trying to understand why we have reached this point, and have been asking questions of all kinds of people ”
    Douglas, surprise that you would asked a question like that. When peolple like you who support a group of politicians that only cares about themselves, while average people are suffering is shameful. You know how we got here, incompetence, lack of vision, dishonest, and seeking their own gains first. Everything that the last administration built up, is being look upon with scorn and envied, and how ever they can find a way to destroy it, they would. UWI is no exception. So when you can support what lacks vision, mediocrity and envied, it says a lot about you as a person. Is this country now in an IMF program and being control by them? WHY, with all the tax increases the revenue collection is never enough? ask yourself those questions, perhaps you and your friends are consuming too much juice? This country is in serious trouble, but I guess when the shit is hitting your fan, people like you will wake up.

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