The business model on which the university operates was regionally approved for campuses to implement. Simply put, all programmes are costed, and the cost sharing splits out into an 80% support from governments (mostly the campus governments) and 20% from students. The university bills governments for the 80% in respect of national students, and bills the students for their 20%. In the case of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, the governments pay both the 80% and 20% for its nationals. When governments do not meet the billing, it goes into arrears and should be accounted for as a receivable in audited accounts. This shortfall, started to balloon out of control 20 years ago, and constitutes the principal driver of bad news on the balance sheet. The challenge the university is faced with, then, is how best to grow its expansion of new and innovative programmes, promote relevance, transform research, and be a source of public advocacy, with public funding shrinking at a significant rate, while maintaining its standing as a university ranked in the top 4% of the best 28,000 universities globally. At the moment, the governments’ contributions cover about 50% of the university’s overall operational cost. Student fees’ input hover at about 15%, leaving the university to find 35 per cent from its entrepreneurial activities. The first point to make in this regard is that the governments, in the grind of their fiscal challenges derived from shrinking economies, must be celebrated and not in any way criticised for this circumstance. While their relative contribution to operational budgets has fallen from 90% to 50% over 30 years, their absolute contributions in hard cash has risen dramatically over
The University of the West Indies is currently engaged in a deep dive discourse on higher education funding within the Caribbean context. It is arguably one of the main development challenges facing our regional community. We therefore see this conversation as a critical part of the search for a solution-oriented financial paradigm. In this regard, it is important to note, however, that there are overlapping issues that must be untangled for the purpose of analytical clarity and thematic differentiation. There is the institutional matter of how The UWI singularly, as the number one ranked university in the Caribbean, is seeking to improve upon its financial health in order to assure its sustainability as a regional centre of academic and development excellence. Then, there is the broader system issue of what strategy and model should be adopted by stakeholders to fund higher education with its diversity of institutions and mandates across the region. There is obviously an inter- connection at all levels of thinking between the two. The UWI, like dozens of universities in the region, is not a ‘for profit’ business institution, though it is expected by stakeholders to run its operations in a ‘business-like fashion’. We have the flexibility to be market-driven, but there is always the matter of catering for the ‘public good’ that sometimes requires a more complex decision- making process. The expectation of demonstrated financial efficiency in the use of public funds lies at the heart of our governance model, hence the selection of distinguished corporate minds to chair and manage our financial and audit committees, campus councils, and who play a critical role in discussing the responses to the university’s external audit reports.
The UWI, like dozens of universities in the region, is not a ‘for profit’ business institution, though it is expected by stakeholders to run its operations in a ‘business-like fashion’.
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