FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND EDUCATION
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Beyond our three (3) academic sections of language, linguistics and philosophy, we continued work in two (2) units and two (2) centres as follows: 1. determining incoming students’ reading and writing competence in English through English Language proficiency testing (the ELPT). 2. testing the English Language proficiency of individuals who wish to live/work/ study in countries in which English is a language of communication – through the British Council’s International English Language Testing System (IELTS) via four (4) tests: IELTS paper-based test, computer-delivered IELTS tests (CD IELTS), CD IELTS tests for UK Visas and Immigration (CD UKVI) and the Life Skills test. 3. assisting students and other stakeholders with writing being done in courses and generally via the Writing Centre. 4. conducting research into Jamaican and other Caribbean languages, contributing to consciousness-raising of Caribbean peoples regarding language and lobbying for language rights via the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU). At all levels, staff continued to facilitate students’ development, engaged in personal and professional development activities and contributed to institutional growth. TEACHING/LEARNING AND (UNDERGRADUATE) STUDENT DEVELOPMENT The Department offered 35 undergraduate and 17 postgraduate courses in Semes- ter 1, 40 undergraduate and 20 postgraduate in Semester 2, and 11 undergraduate courses (with enrolment of 290 students) in Summer School of 2022–23 (See Table 1). For the academic year, six (6) new students registered for the BA in Philosophy while 71 students registered for Linguistics programmes, and there were over 160 streams of academic literacies courses weekly in Semester 1 and over 120 courses weekly in Semester 2. Additionally, the new courses PHIL3120: Biomedical Ethics (Semester 1) and PHIL3110: Environmental Ethics (Semester 2) exceeded their quota in the first week of registration. However, our courses were not without concerns as staff and students faced operational challenges over which they had no control. These ranged from inadequate classroom space (especially for laboratory sessions in FOUN1019) and unsatisfactory classroom conditions to challenges associated with registration. Owing to delayed approval of posts for teaching by the VMC, some Linguistics and Philosophy courses were not available early on the Student Administration System (SAS) when students wanted to select them for study in Semester 1. When those courses were eventually available on SAS for registration, some suffered unprecedented low registration. There were also general delays by the Registry Information Systems (RIS) in uploading the Department’s Course Offering and amendments to courses. These delays impeded the smooth registration of students
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