Principal’s REVIEW
The Progressive PRINCIPLE
A s Principal of The University of the West Indies’ St. Augustine Campus, it is my great pleasure to present this annual report for the fiscal year 2021/2022 although my tenure began at the start of the following academic year. The period under review was the second full year in which the campus operated under the restrictions imposed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and the final year of the University’s 2017– 2022 Strategic Plan. During the review period, as you will see in this report, we celebrated 100 years of agricultural research at the Campus, dating back to its first life as the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, while our Guild of Students observed its 60 th anniversary. More than 21 members of staff and alumni received national awards spanning the period 2020 to 2022, and, of the two new professorial appointments on the campus, one is the first ever at our university in the field of astronomy. The COVID-19 pandemic inspired new research projects in almost every Faculty and spurred changes to some programmes which are now offered in a blended format. Similarly, some of the support services available to students will continue to be offered virtually to provide the widest possible access. The
Campus also made significant progress toward the digitalisation of key processes and furthering the institutional and policy structures to support entrepreneurship and innovation. I thank my predecessor, Professor Brian Copeland, for his six years of service at the helm, steering our campus through some of the roughest waters it has ever experienced. Despite the challenges, he was able to continue the admirable growth of a culture of Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus—something that began as many as two decades ago with previous administrations and takes years to build. I have grasped the baton firmly and will ensure that we continue channelling our intellectual capital into commercial enterprises, while holding fast to our core values of excellent, principled scholarship. This Campus has wholeheartedly embraced self-sustainability and revenue generation. In fact, I have already concretised several initiatives and obtained funding for the much-anticipated UWI Fine Cocoa Products Limited. We will continue to operationalise companies and commercialise our research-driven innovative products and to enhance efforts to incentivise and provide mentorship to entrepreneurs and start-ups from among staff and students.
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