Vice-Chancellor's Report to University Council 2019/2020

Vice-Chancellor's Report to University Council 2019/2020

CONTENTS

VICE-CHANCELLOR’S OVERVIEW..............................................................4 AGILITY...................................................................................................8 ACCESS.................................................................................................30 ALIGNMENT...........................................................................................60 STATISTICS. ........................................................................................104 Conversations, Celebrations and Ceremonies.............................. 110 CAMPUS AND CENTRE REPORTS AT A GLANCE........................................130 Principal Officers of The University of the West Indies. ...........166

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Vice-Chancellor’s OVERVIEW

University PERFORMANCE Rises: Raising New Revenue

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, The University of the West Indies

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T he Caribbean economy, while slowly emerging from the 2007/2008 global financial epidemic, has been crippled by the COVID-19 public health pandemic that heaped further havoc upon all economic and social life. Within this destructive, dreadful, existentially threatening context, our task has been to keep The University of the West Indies (UWI) abreast and ahead and rising to the expectations of stakeholders. I am pleased to report, that because of the persistence of commitment from our caring and courageous university community and its allies we have achieved the objective of delivering our services as mandated. We succeeded in the face of the COVID scourge, and the illness and death visited upon our campus and general communities, to achieve the widely considered impossible objective. We kept our classrooms available to our students; converted hundreds of their academic programmes to online, remote formats, took them through examination processes and on to graduation. We are proud of this excellent achievement. We honoured our pledges to our students and their families. This is our core business and we succeeded in banishing all doubt from our doors. During the year, the university skillfully managed the double agenda of building out its academic reputation as a first-class, globally-respected enterprise while deepening strategic plans to accelerate non-government revenue-generation. It was the year in which we pivoted in the Strategic Plan from the phase one “ Reputation Revolution ” to phase two “ Revenue Acceleration ”. We have become known as an enterprise of integrity that delivers upon its promised objectives. We are also known as an activist university that stands up for our stakeholders in meeting their most dire challenges.

On the reputation side, we are happy to report that in 2020, the Times Higher Education presented us with a Triple 1 st Ranking: first in the Caribbean; top 1% in Latin America and the Caribbean; top 1% in the Golden Age category of universities in our 50-80 years cohort. This is a magnificent performance achieved within the context of global competitiveness that reaffirmed the enlightenment of our leadership and the correctness of our collective strategy. Meanwhile, we met head on the challenges associated with the impact of regional economic decline upon our revenues as a publicly funded university. There is no escaping the significant negative consequences of the regional economic catastrophe upon the operations of the enterprise. The challenge has been to seek to arrest and stabilize the decline in government contributions; settle as far as possible the enormous public debt accumulation on our balance sheet; and suppress the annual impairment of millions of dollars in respect of this debt that weakens our financials. On the other hand we went about the serious business of radically enhancing revenue generation as part of an entrepreneurial exercise intended to offset balance sheet leakage and promote the financial health of the enterprise. We set out on this path in a scientific, strategic fashion. University leadership in our developing nations’ context is not an ad hoc affair. It is at once an art and a science. In short time we saw positive results from the collective efforts of some campuses. At the core of this strategy was the importance of facilitating the transition from the 30-year-old deficit financing model to the balanced budget approach. The

It was the year in which we pivoted in the Strategic Plan from the phase one “Reputation Revolution” to phase two “Revenue Acceleration” .

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Vice-Chancellor’s OVERVIEW

Already very good short-term results are being reported with multimillion dollar contracts and agreements signed and being executed. Agreements to take the university to the regional capital market are in place and 2022 will witness the roll out of these measures. Short- and medium- term strategies, therefore, are in place to see the university meet its revised self-financing targets. These strategies were promised. Outcomes will be delivered. The Revenue Revolution, then, is well on its way in a new and unprecedented fashion. It’s a moment that was imagined and is being managed. It was planned and is being implemented. The activist university will honour its pledges and maintain its strategic integrity. We are not afraid of the volatile world; we have visions for it and energy to meet it face on as an example of Caribbean resilience and thriving. We are amongst “the best in the developing West” and have shown the significance of such a hard-earned status. The year in review, then, was a period of academic prosperity in the face of the regional financial and health ferocity faced by the stakeholder family. We stood our ground and defended our communities and nations, serving them as we are mandated to do. The UWI is in a good, strategic position; to erase tomorrow what is today’s deficit. We are grateful for the extraordinary support received during the year. It will be the seed of tomorrow’s fruit.

university grew significantly within the mutually agreed deficit financing business model. The time has come to drive forward with the balanced budget approach in which frugality rather that the brutality of austerity holds the centre. Frugality is undoubtedly the mother of future growth. Austerity is the anchor of endless decline. The Chairman of the University Grants Committee, the Honourable Colm Imbert, agreed that outgoing chair, Honourable Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, would chair a sub-committee to bring these discourses to maturity. Working with the Honourable Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, and regional finance ministers, the committee brought matters to maturity and closure. It affirmed that the governments and the university should enter into a new phase of mutual bonding and trust in order to move forward on the same page to prosperity. This is the new arena in which the future is being forged. Management is now empowered with better understanding to build out the new entrepreneurial UWI in order to close the US$25 million deficit within the multi-campus, consolidated eco-system. Government arrears that stood in 2015 at a record high of US$117 million is now reduced to US$45 million. Already the new commitment is yielding significant results. Coming out of our 2019 Management Strategy Retreat we rolled out the New Financial Plan 2020 to 2025. In addition to implementing a 10% cut in expenditure, it proposed a 10% increase in entrepreneurial revenue. A multimillion dollar revenue strategy is being implemented that focuses on new markets for our academic services.

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor, The University of the West Indies

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TheRevenue Revolution , then, is well on its way in a newand unprecedented fashion

AGILiTY

Creating an entrepreneurial universitywith a diverse revenue base, global presence, operational efficiency and financial stability.

The UWI is seeking to raise a bond of TT$335,000,000 on the Trinidad and Tobago capital market to finance the development of the proposed UWISTA Global School of Medicine as a school within the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the St. Augustine Campus.

VICE-CHANCELLOR PROPOSES NEW FINANCIAL MODEL

Global Partnerships and Donors 5%

The UWI’s new financial model will see reduced dependence on declining subventions by regional governments, as the institution turns to other sustainable, forward- thinking strategies. As it stands, running the university costs just over $18 billion per year, yet only 50% of the expenditure comes from Government. During the last year, the institution’s regional leadership met in a series of retreats with stakeholders to discuss strategies for implementing the new model. Despite the impact of COVID-19, the market response suggests there is still a high level of liquidity in the financial system, and investors are willing to invest.

Alumni 5%

Private Sector Funds 15%

Government 50%

UWI Entrepreneurship 10%

Student Fees 15%

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Membership of the Corporate Investment Committee

Mr Gerry Brooks Professor of Practice, St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago

Ms Minna Israel , Special Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor on Resource Development

Mr Mitchell Howard Mona School of Business, Jamaica

Mrs Vennecia Christian-Barnes Teaching Fellow, Mona School of Business and Management

Mr Dodridge Miller President and CEO, Sagicor Financial and Professor of Practice at the Vice-Chancellery

Mrs Andrea Taylor-Hanna Campus Bursar at the St Augustine Campus

Professor Densil Williams Pro Vice-Chancellor Planning and Principal, Five Islands Campus

Mrs Laleta Davis-Mattis University Counsel and Head, Legal Unit

Professor Justin Robinson Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business, Barbados

Mrs Andrea McNish University Bursar and Chief Finance Officer

UWI CORPORATE INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEETS WITH FINANCE SECTOR REPRESENTATIVES

The UWI has set up a Corporate Investment Committee, which serves as an advisory team for the university’s participation in large-scale private sector investments. On March 10, 2020, The UWI met with regional finance leaders in the private sector to discuss how to bring the institution to market with investment instruments. Vice-Chancellor Beckles delivered a presentation on The UWI’s strategy, while a private sector investment road map for The UWI was presented by Pro Vice-Chancellor for Industry-Academic Partnerships, Professor Densil Williams. The five Campus Principals then presented a roster of projects being prepared for private investments using bonds and Initial Public Offering (IPO) options. Among the for-profit initiatives under consideration are real estate housing schemes, tourism teaching and research facilities, an international for-profit medical school for global students, a hotel and conferencing complex, sports stadia, a sport injury and rehabilitation centre, science and technology spin offs, and >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 148 Page 149 Page 150 Page 151 Page 152 Page 153 Page 154 Page 155 Page 156 Page 157 Page 158 Page 159 Page 160 Page 161 Page 162 Page 163 Page 164 Page 165 Page 166 Page 167

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