Vice-Chancellor's Report to University Council 2019/2020

UWI CAMPUS Reports at a GlancE

The ABC exercise was first carried out at those Faculties whose programmes are CGC funded i.e., all Faculties but the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS), which has focused on the development of a strategy for improved financial solvency through expanding intake to the global education market. In this regard a Special Meeting of University Council on January 21, 2021, approved the following: o The establishment of the proposed UWISTA Global School of Medicine as a school within the Faculty of Medical Sciences at STA. NB: The proposal described several scenarios with the base scenario targeting an annual intake of 120 students yielding 18% IRR and an EBITA in Year 6 forecasted at TT$105.3M along with a surplus after tax of TT$59.1M

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coaching services to the Cocoa Research Centre (CRC) to support the International Fine Cocoa Innovation Centre (IFCIC) a Business Partnership Proposal developed for the CRC to provide cocoa nibs to Angostura Holdings Ltd.

During the review period, STACIE was called upon to manage UWISTA’s collaborative COVID-19 response, in the production of alternative supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment. A key requirement was that these were to be manufactured at very short notice, locally and at low cost, while meeting or exceeding globally accepted industry health, safety and environment (HSE) standards. Items considered included face masks, face shields, N95 respirators, video laryngoscopes, and ventilators.

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• The Internal Process Review project subcommittee is mandated to complete a detailed review and analysis of student administrative processes such as Recruitment, Admissions, Examinations, and Graduate Studies. • During the review period, the Examinations Section, with the support of the Bursary, implemented an online payment store where, for the first time, local and foreign users could use their credit cards to pay for frequently requested services such as certified copies of examination documents, transcripts and verification letters, re-markings of examination scripts, courier fees, and certificate replacement.

• A multidisciplinary team of engineers and medical professionals was assembled, and a partnership was created with private sector companies with capacities in manufacturing, procurement, funding, and technical expertise. This also provided an opportunity to create a new industry in Trinidad and Tobago, in line with national economic diversification goals. Thus far, the exercise has yielded a second license agreement for the St. Augustine Campus – this time with the Label House Group – for the production of face shields. This agreement is the first between the Campus and a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME). • The Entrepreneurship Unit (EU) at the Department of Management Studies engaged in several activities to boost entrepreneurial skills among students, staff and alumni. They included: o a six-module Entrepreneurship Master Class Series for roughly 30 UWI alumni o the Coaching and Mentorship programme for students using the UWI Ventures Virtual Incubator Platform attracted applications from more than 50 students

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The UWI to seek to raise a bond of TT$335,000,000 on the Trinidad and Tobago capital market to finance the development of the proposed school.

Council further recommended the convening of a steering committee formed jointly with The UWI and the GORTT represented by the relevant government ministries and state agencies to ensure high level engagement and partnership with the GORTT to secure the necessary conditions required to enable success of this new venture. University Finance and General Purposes Committee Meeting of October 2020 approved the Business Plan for Financial Solvency for the School of Dentistry. The plan was based on an increase in full fee-paying foreign students to 35 and a reduction in local/regional intake to five over five years. Enrolment is limited primarily by the number of dentist chairs available. The business

To improve the registration system, the Student Administration System completed a review of pre-requisites for each course listed in the faculty booklets commonly used by students in the registration process, to ensure alignment with what has been approved by the Board of Undergraduate Studies (BUS) and with the information stored in the online Banner Registration System.

• The Financial Processes committee developed an Activity Based Costing (ABC) model to determine the true cost of running a programme. The exercise revealed that administrative costs represented a significant proportion of programme costs and this will be the focus for future follow-up initiatives.

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