NEW GLOBAL ONLINE CAMPUS TARGETS 100,000 STUDENTS BY 2025
The next phase of the implementation of The UWI’s Triple A Strategy focuses on the development of a new Global Online Campus, leveraging the high reputation of the regional university. This new Global Online Campus will build capacity and generate revenue as a core part of the university’s financial future. The 73-year-old university’s current five-year strategic plan identifies digital transformation as a key strategic objective. However, for more than a decade, The UWI has been making significant investment in the resources and development of online delivery through its Open Campus, established in 2008. As part of its Smart Campus Initiative, the Cave Hill campus has also enabled training of lecturers in online pedagogy and the use of smart technology and virtual learning tools, ushering in the direction and expansion for this next phase. The UWI, now representing the region in the digital/ tech space, is positioned to leverage this opportunity as a revenue base for the region; foreign exchange earnings; the internationalisation of the Caribbean higher education sector and promotion of the Caribbean on the world stage following the global market model adopted for the region’s tourism and petrochemical industries.
When The UWI transitioned to emergency remote teaching and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic—which accelerated its strategic intentions—executive management realised that the institution had risen to embrace technology relatively smoothly. Vice-Chancellor Beckles said, “Despite the suffering and harm that the virus brought to our society, it represented a backwind for us to go forward into the future aggressively. Technology has liberated us through its application over the past couple of months. We can now see clearly what the next step has to be: the transformation of our online capability. We have fully embraced the remote online academic culture and can see the way forward with a global online campus with 50,000–100,000 global self-funding students by 2022. We have to convert, upgrade and develop this online capacity which we now have. The infrastructure of our Open Campus has provided the university with a head start. We have to follow the logic to allow online remote teaching and capability to go global even more aggressively. We have gone through the research and concluded that the next step is our Global Online Campus.” The new Global Online Campus dovetails with the university’s successful global strategy. Capitalising on the university’s current position to drive recruitment for international students, the new UWI Global Campus will serve as part of its international agenda allowing The UWI to access the world student market, via global recruitment and leveraging the institution’s One UWI brand in this space.
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