radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
The outgoing principal of The University of the West Indies St Augustine campus, Professor Brian Copeland, says he will soon outline details of how the institution will be dealing with financial challenges.
He was responding yesterday to questions sent to him after the Government blanked a UWI proposal to increase tuition fees for the 2022/2023 academic year.
In announcing the Government’s rejection of a fee hike during a post-Cabinet media briefing on Thursday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said The UWI should instead consider alternatives.
Over 16,000 students are enrolled at the UWI and Government spends $500 million and $200 million in GATE funding at the St Augustine campus.
However, The UWI has been asked to consider a 10 per cent cut from the $500 million subventions and Imbert has noted that the Government has realised “the St Augustine campus has found it difficult to live within the budget we’ve given them.”
Asked yesterday whether the UWI will consider dropping some of its 300 courses offered at the campus yesterday, Professor Copeland said, “We will be issuing a response in short order. Thanks.”
In a subsequent statement sent by The UWI, it said over the last six years, non-staff expenditure had been reduced by over $200 million.
“Staff costs have essentially remained unchanged, and the Campus has been commended year on year by technocrats at the Ministries of Education and Finance for its good fiscal management. For the past four years, the Campus has been managing with a correspondingly reduced T&T Government subvention of $517.1 million,” the statement said.
The UWI said it will be in deficit for the first time in a few years in 2022 due to the 10 per cent cut in funding by the Government.
“The provision of quality internationally accredited higher education services to the region is costly. UWI St Augustine fees have not increased in some 21 years—it was last changed before many of its students were born. UWI St Augustine fees are currently the lowest in the UWI system and among tertiary education institutions in the Caribbean.”
The incoming principal, Professor Rosemarie Belle-Antoine, who will take up office in August, also declined to comment yesterday, referring questions to Professor Copeland.
But the former Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim said part of the restructuring should be an investment in online learning.
“In a post-pandemic era, investing in high-quality online services could assist the university in offering the same breadth of programmes but more cost-effectively,” Karim said.
“The central issue is not that UWI delivers over 300 programmes but rather that there is no strategic support from the Government in mapping the priority sectors and industries for which education investments should be aligned.”
Karim noted, “Data analytics, Industry 4.0, sustainability and smart farming are emergent fields globally that Government should be incentivising through funding.”
Karim said export education services and online education would also assist in increasing revenue streams for tertiary and training institutions.
Noting that the problems at The UWI occurred because the Government has been starving the university of funding for its subvention and GATE, Karim said this created a budgetary gap and led to the fee increase proposal from UWI.
“The Government has bureaucratised the GATE programme and UWI and other tertiary institutions are obstructed from introducing new and in-demand programmes for national development. The administration of GATE is archaic and counter-intuitive to programme, curriculum, pedagogical and technological innovation,” he said.
He also said the “chronic late GATE payments to institutions by this Government has caused a spiralling debt trap and cash flow crisis.”
Karim recalled that the GATE programme was introduced and capitalised to the tune of $100 million in 2004-2005 and ballooned to $500 million two years later, representing a five-fold increase.
“GATE funding increased to a high of approximately $800 million in 2011-2012 but the Government has since cut the programme by half, down to $400 million per annum,” he added.
Karim also said, “Government has exponentially reduced student enrolment with the cuts to GATE and a further enrolment dip is projected in this academic year.”
