Senior Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
The University of the West Indies (UWI) is revamping its Offshore Global Medical School to be housed at its $500 million Debe Campus. Principal of the UWI St Augustine Campus Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine confirmed that plans are in place to use the south-based campus.
“We are in the process of revamping the school, so we are doing the feasibility study because we have good prospects. I don’t want to proceed with a project unless I am clear in my mind that everything is feasible,” she said.
Antoine said the university has been pushing for the establishment of the Global Medical School. During the pandemic, UWI urged local investors to buy US$60 million in bonds to finance the school which was agreed upon by the university’s council. UWI envisaged that within three to five years the school could generate upwards of 30 per cent of the campus’ long-term capital and revenue needs.
Pressed about the status of the US$60 million bond, Belle Antoine said: “I don’t think that step was taken by my predecessor although it was approved. That was put on hold.”
She said once the revamping process is completed “we will determine how best we proceed. We still hope to have the support of the Government but it might be tripartite. There are several options, so, we don’t want it (campus) to be a white elephant. That’s the plan to put it to good use. That will be the significant revenue earner. So that is why I am focused on that. We still think there is a good market out there.”
Antoine said raising revenue is one of the university’s three strategic objectives.
“I am approaching it systematically. Everything was stymied because of COVID.”
She said UWI has a new Dean of Medical Sciences, Prof Hariharan Seetharaman of India, who is excited about the opening of the school.
“Just today I was speaking to him about medical school. He is very optimistic on the way forward.”
As to when UWI will enrol its first batch of medical students, Antoine had no definitive date.
The school will not utilise the entire campus, she said, as Roytec has expressed an interest.
“They could have gone there already but they (Government) used the facility for COVID,” she said.
In 2021, the Ministry of Health used the campus as a step-down facility for COVID-19 patients. That was the only time the campus was put to use.
In 2011, the former People’s Partnership administration awarded China Jiangsu a $499 million contract for the construction of the campus which was intended to house the Faculty of Law. The project was funded under the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP).
Construction began on the 100 acres campus located near the Debe High School in January 2013 and was expected to be completed by December 2014. However, the contractor was terminated in 2016 after defaulting on the work and UWI took full responsibility for completing the project.
Asked where the multi-million dollar project had reached, Belle Antoine said UWI brought the campus to almost completion.
“We had a little bit of stuff to do with the dorms, one or two buildings perhaps. It was more or less ready for use. It was far advanced,” she said.
Antoine could not identify the new contractor(s) retained to complete the project, nor could she say if the contract surpassed the $499 million figure or if there were cost overruns.
“I am unable to say. Obviously, it is not that I can’t get the information but it was before my time and I don’t have the information right now.”
Asked if UWI planned on renting some of the campus’ buildings to increase its funding, Belle Antoine said they had not.
She said with the campus inoperable for years, UWI had to do a cost analysis to repair furniture and equipment.
“When we did the study, we were a bit surprised at how costly it would be to get it back to where we had it. My registrar would have the exact details of the study. I know it is a very costly exercise. The wear and tear and don’t forget it was a state-of-the-art facility and we really had lots of equipment in there … including IT which is no longer up to date as the case may be.”
She admitted the repairs will put an additional strain on UWI’s coffers.
“To be honest it is not just the South campus,” she said.
Security costs
In addition to the repair bill, UWI has to deal with high-security costs.
When the St Augustine campus reopened last August following the lifting of the COVID restrictions, UWI had to do a lot of repairs and maintenance which they had not catered for.
“Most of our budget was taken up with that. There was a tremendous amount of things we needed to do and clearly, that put a bigger strain on our meagre budget,” she said.
Last year, the campus received just over $82 million in government subventions compared to just over $100 million in 2021.
“And your quality suffers. You have to do a lot of cutting measures. The cuts have come high and fast. Notwithstanding the fact that the governments do spend a lot on UWI because again that is the model, it’s a huge budget for them to educate people of the region and Trinidad and Tobago.”
While UWI is not in debt, Antoine said people owe the university.
She pointed out: “It’s not a secret that there are millions (of dollars) in terms of contributions by Government … student fees and stuff like that. This is when people say UWI is in the red and I don’t mean just St Augustine.
“If it is that governments would have been paying what they owe UWI in terms of sending students, etc, UWI would always be in the black. That is not the case. It is one of those issues that has been going on for quite a while. That is the way it is.”
Antoine admitted that UWI has been experiencing a conundrum with its fees but said she is willing to work with all stakeholders.
“We rely on the fees and governments’ contributions. I have a fairly good relationship with the Government. I understand their constraints as well. They have huge challenges as well. I won’t go into the blame game. I understand the tensions and challenges. I would say at the end of the day that we have to look and see this as an investment,” she said.
With other things happening in the country, Belle Antoine added: “I am not clear that UWI is at the top of the priority list in terms of thinking about development.”
She said T&T and the region must think deeply about what we want out of tertiary education and remember why we have UWI.
“I guess we could say … have a more coherent way of dealing with tertiary education. Right now, it seems to be rather ad-hoc. You just don’t know what is coming next.”
Child of Caricom
“UWI is a child of the Caricom Treaty of Chaguaramas and other treaties where the Government said they want a publicly funded university, so that is our model, a model that is being challenged at the moment. This is the model that was agreed to and we have honoured. As a University of the West Indies, we obviously struggle,” Antoine said, referring to the yearly decreases in funding which leave them scrambling and “bareboned.”
Last year, UWI received a $6.7 million increase (TT$52.2 million) in externally-funded special research projects and scholarships across all faculties. Faced with budget constraints and a reduction in student enrolment for the 2021/2022 period, Antoine said it has been very difficult and even placed UWI at a crossroads.
Despite offering the lowest degree costs out of all regional campuses during the 2021/22 period, UWI’s student enrolment numbers for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes decreased by 8.7 per cent and 28 per cent respectively. Total student enrolment declined a further five per cent from 15,931 in the previous year to 15,130 students.
In addition to undergraduate enrolment dropping by a further four per cent for 2020-2021, there was a 38 per cent decrease in students pursuing undergraduate certificates/diplomas.
Since her induction as UWI’s principal in January, Antoine said her greatest challenge and biggest headache has been finance.
“Sometimes you put one step forward and two steps backwards. I came in just after it was announced that they were cutting us by $50 million. It was a lot of money. There was a certain amount of panic in terms of the finances.”
In April, UWI began salary negotiations for its staff. She described the budget cut and negotiations as a double-edged sword.
“It seems to be the story of my life. Wherever I go somewhere there seems to be some kind of financial challenge. I eat, live and sleep thinking about how best to make our coffers healthier,” she said.
However in spite of the difficulties, Antoine said UWI has been very exciting.
“It sounds a bit weird but I am enjoying it, not the financially challenging part, but trying to elevate the space and plodding along one day at a time. But it has certainly been very hectic and never a dull moment.”