The government of Antigua and Barbuda has promised to offer scholarships to 60 worthy students from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to the University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands campus in the country. The six countries within the OECS are Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Montserrat.
The Antigua government agreed to the scholarship during a recent cabinet meeting in the country. UWI’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hillary Beckles, confirmed the development, saying the government of Antigua must be commended for the initiative, adding it will boost the university’s population in the coming academic session.
“The Five Islands Campus was established to provide an additional sustainable higher education development platform for the OECS, and when governments make decisions in the interest of the region, it demonstrates an enlightened understanding of the partnerships and investments required to drive regional development,” Beckles said.
Campus Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Stafford Griffith said the Five Islands campus in Antigua currently has a student population of 180. He said this will rise to 400 by January 2020 given the scholarship offered by the government of Antigua and Barbuda. He said the OECS is set up to drive regional development in the OECS and government scholarships will go a long way to admitting a crop of students and graduates who will bring about the desired developmental changes in the eastern Caribbean region.
“We are currently at 180 students actively enrolled in programmes at Five Islands,” Griffith said. “With a second round of recruitment to open soon, we expect that we will hit our target of 400 registered students by January 2020. The scholarships offered by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda will certainly go a long way to helping us attain this goal.”
Applications for admission to the UWI’s Five Islands campus in Antigua started on November 11, and students will begin to be admitted in January 2020 for a new academic year. The school runs Bachelor degree programmes and Certificate programmes. There are Bachelor degree programmes in Nursing, Psychology, Education and the Social Sciences; and Certificate programmes in Human Resource Management, and Tourism and Hospitality Management.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
