The University of the West Indies (UWI), Five Islands Campus is making innovative academic adjustments to encourage applications to the campus.
Having officially opened in September of this year, the campus is looking ahead to its second semester of operations, come January 2020.
The UWI has long been known across the Caribbean for its stringent requirements, but perhaps, with the objective of quickly increasing the student population, the Five Islands campus is making certain relaxations.
Newly-appointed (interim) Director of Academic Affairs, Hyram Forde, explained how the entry requirements will be adjusted to accommodate students.
“In terms of entry requirements, we want to be innovative with this campus; so for example, students can gain access through part-time study if they have five CXC subjects including English and Mathematics. They can apply on a part-time basis,” he stated.
Forde further explained that there are students who enter the university with these qualifications, and though they are restricted in some ways, they are well on their way to acquiring a university degree.
He said: “A UWI degree in the Social Sciences and Humanities and Education, pretty much would be a 90 credit of related undergrad offerings; 30 credits each year. So, we have had, not many, but we have had students who have come in with CXCs, or students who may have done CAPE – the equivalent of A-Levels – and may not have met the two units’ requirement, and so they are somewhat short in terms of getting direct access for a full-time programme. So, they are on a part-time pathway.”
There are also adjustments being made for students with another set of qualifications, [that is] where already-completed courses will be recognized by the university.
“We have an arrangement with the UWI where students who would have acquired an Associate Degree can get matriculation for a three-year programme. During the establishment of the campus, we conducted what we call a parity analysis, meaning we got UWI to make an assessment of our Associate Degree, and through a matching of the specific courses that we would have done in an Associate Degree over two years, see how they match-up with the first-year offerings,” Forde said.
He also said that the UWI is “on that path, and it is my anticipation that by September, the board for undergraduate studies, which is the body within UWI, which would determine the particular articulation arrangements that will exist – will grant us a favourable response that a person who comes in with an Associate Degree will now do two additional years, or at least, at the very minimum, their transcript will have to be evaluated, and where you see appropriate degree-related courses being covered, then the person gets a natural exemption.”
