VICE-CHANCELLOR’S REPORT TO COUNCIL 2022—2023
MONA CAMPUS REPORT
Improving mental health and building mental resilience The abrupt shift to online education brought on by the coronavirus disease highlighted issues such as digital connectivity and access to resources, which have direct implications for students’ overall health and wellness. As social anxieties, amplified in the aftermath of COVID-19, came to the fore even as the fear of COVID infection dissipated we hosted several events focusing on wellness and mental health. In acknowledgment of the urgent need for psychosocial support among our student and staff populations, amplified in the aftermath of COVID-19, and voiced through surveys, faculties rolled out initiatives to address this need. Of note is the Faculty of Science and Technology’s expansion of its Roll-With-It Programme which seeks to improve mental wellbeing and build mental resilience, playing a crucial role in student retention in degree programmes. Topics included: “A Week of Sleep” – A 5-day sleep series highlighting the importance of being well rested; “Building Mental Resilience” ; “November Fest: A 4-Week Challenge on Changing your Mindset” (whereby mental training challenges and activities were disseminated to improve dedication and commitment to personal goals); “Stress and Overwhelm Survey” of first year students; “Enhancing Teaching Techniques and Student Engagement”; February Love – Tips on improving self- love; and “Managing Stress – Discover the Roadmap for Academic Mastery”. With a strong focus on reintegration and the cultivation of a more student-centric face-to-face educational environment, the FST’s Student Experience Team orchestrated a series of events to cater to the needs of the students. The primary goal was to foster a balanced and holistic experience for the students. The inaugural event was a faculty-wide “Meet and
process more efficiently, the OCR through the Registry Information Systems Unit rolled out the Curriculum Advising Planning Programme (CAPP) tool in the Faculty of Science & Technology (FST). CAPP, which was piloted in the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) in the previous year, proved to be an effective tool in monitoring and reporting on student progression throughout their course of study and enabled the faculties to provide academic advice more easily and to declare degrees. The Planning Unit of the Office of the Deputy Principal successfully improved access to the Course Experience Review (CER) for students at our university. This enhancement was achieved through the integration of Qualtrics with the UWI Moodle platform, OurVLE. Prior to this integration, students were limited to accessing their course experience reviews solely through links sent to their email addresses. With the integration, students now have the option to access all their course experience reviews directly within OurVLE. This dual access approach provides students with increased convenience and flexibility in retrieving their course feedback. This increased accessibility to course experience reviews has encouraged more students to engage in the feedback process, leading to a more comprehensive and representative understanding of their academic experiences.
out an extensive social media campaign to reach prospects we would not otherwise have reached through the traditional school visits. This has resulted in a 23.5% increase in applicants and a 14% increase in new undergraduate student enrolment over the 2021–2022 academic year. The gender disparity on the Mona Campus is evident as female registrants continue to outpace male registrants in the three academic years. For all three academic years under consideration in this report the female to male ratio on the Mona Campus was is ~2:1. The exception is, there is gender equity in the Faculty of Science and Technology where the female to male ratio is 1:1. In the smaller faculties of Engineering (1:4) and Sport (1:2) the ratio, as is expected, is skewed towards the male population. In the larger faculties of Humanities and Education (3:1), Social Sciences (2:1) and Medical Sciences (2:1) the opposite is true where female to male ratio skewed towards the female population. This is the most prominent in the 4:1 ratio for the Institute for Gender and Development Studies. Enhancing the Student Experience Digitalization of the Campus’ operations, specifically, the use of digital technology, business process re- engineering (and digital data) to drive innovations and improvements in operational efficiency and the customer experience was a priority in the resumption of in-person operations. To this end, MITS completed the automation business processes and services, including Student Course Evaluation System, Banner 9 Registration Online Portal, Electronic Timetabling System (ETS), VMC Process Automation (Automation of the workflow and the approval process of the Vacancy Monitoring Committee), and Graduate Student Progress Tracking. To manage and execute the student advising
Upgrading multimedia enabled teaching spaces
The Campus established a budget of J$24M to assist in making all technology-enabled lecture theatres and other teaching spaces fit for purpose and operable for in-person teaching and learning. MITS completed the critical works for all teaching spaces on schedule, implemented additional technical infrastructure, and maintained and managed all teaching spaces throughout the academic year.
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