Lead Editor – Newsgathering
kejan.haynes@guardian.co.tt
The University of the West Indies (UWI) South Campus in Penal-Debe will officially open for academic programmes in August 2025, nearly a decade after its scheduled completion.
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus Principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine said, “The UWI St Augustine Campus is excited to work with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago as a key developmental partner in its shared goals of strengthening the education, skills base and research imperatives of the country. Maximising the capacity of the South Campus to ensure that the country’s productive resources are put to optimum use is an important facet of these laudable goals.”
Construction of the campus began in 2012 with a $499 million budget and a completion target of 2014. The original plan was to house the Faculty of Law.
In 2019, UWI said the site would instead be used by the Faculty of Medical Sciences. Then, in 2023, former Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said the campus would become a medical school, partially funded by a proposed $330 million bond.
The South Campus was used as a national facility during the COVID-19 pandemic and later returned to UWI. The university says it has since carried out repairs and security upgrades and re-evaluated the campus’s long-term purpose.
The site will now house UWI’s newly launched Global School of Medicine (GSM), which will cater mainly to international students pursuing a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. Applications for the programme are open.
Other academic offerings from the Faculties of Science and Technology, Food and Agriculture, Humanities and Education, and Medical Sciences will also be delivered in blended formats. UWI Roytec has signed a rental agreement to operate on-site.
