In mid-March, a team from UWI St Augustine went to Lengua Village in Moruga to be part of the Moruga/Tableland Community Day. We were invited by the Member of Parliament Ms Michelle Benjamin, and were of course delighted to accept.
Representatives from seven of our faculties attended, and we shared samples of some of our campus-grown products and services. These included high-quality milk from the University Field Station, our organic pesticide Biophyt 1.0, and health services such as blood pressure testing. The team chose products and services that we felt would be of specific value to members of the community.
Members of the campus team also engaged the young people of Moruga/Tableland with games and quizzes, activities we have become quite accomplished at from experience gained through our school visits and campus tours such as the Open Days (covered in this issue of UWI TODAY).
As a campus community, indeed as a university, engagement with smaller and distant communities is extremely important to us. “Access” is one of the three pillars upon which The UWI’s strategic plan is constructed.
The UWI Triple A Strategic Plan 2022-2027 states:
“[Access] refers to increasing participation in tertiary and higher education for all with the capacity and desire to learn. This will involve, among other things, ensuring that The UWI offerings (teaching and learning, student development, consulting, research and public advocacy programmes) reach the underserved and diaspora Caribbean populations and all others with an interest in higher education on all continents.”
This university was conceived, and has evolved, as an institution central to the development of the Caribbean – through the preparation of its people for work and life, the provision of information services, and outreach activities to support individuals and communities. However, it is an unfortunate reality that even in the most open and egalitarian societies, the fruits of development are not enjoyed equally. That is why access is so important.
During my time as Dean of the Faculty of Law I implemented policies to provide opportunities for a legal education for deserving students who ordinarily would not be able to study law at the university level. I did so because I understood that, contrary to the myth that education systems are egalitarian, several factors contribute to student success, and in many cases students with the necessary intelligence, aptitude, and work ethic may not be able to meet the traditional requirements to study because of other material or behavioural factors.
Most importantly, I have always understood that as a nation and a region we are robbing ourselves of the enormous human potential of so many because of systemic factors within Caribbean society.
All year round, we conduct visits to schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago, exposing secondary-level students to the opportunities available to them in higher education. By doing so, we not only make them aware of the possibilities of a university education, we hopefully ignite a fire in them to broaden their horizons and find new ambitions.
Likewise, we encourage our students to take part in volunteerism and community engagement through several initiatives, as well as through the work of our Division of Students Services and Development.
We at UWI St Augustine look forward to more opportunities to visit rural and outlying communities. We are also seeking out opportunities through which our expertise and services can be used to benefit people that all too often do not receive equal support from society.
As educators and Caribbean people engaged in the development of this regional society, there is an ultimate metric for our success: Seeing the growth of young people in communities like Moruga/Tableland and observing them benefitting from an education at The UWI to become leaders and good citizens.
