PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – The Trinidad and Tobago government and the University of the West Indies (UWI) appear to be on a collision course regarding the functions of the university’s South campus in Debe, a town in South Trinidad.
Earlier this week, the UWI in a lengthy statement said that classes would start at the campus in August and that it “will be the home of the newly launched Global School of Medicine (GSM) leveraging the world-ranked reputation of the UWI and especially the UWI’s Faculty of Medicine (FMS), to serve primarily international students pursuing the Doctor of Medicine (MD) programme”.
Further, UWI said that despite very tight financial resources, it has prioritised and proceeded with critical repair work and security enhancements at the Debe campus in order to prepare the facility in anticipation of its phased reopening, beginning in August.
It said that key restoration to the main buildings including the academic building, the students’ union, auditorium/moot court, health facility, cafeteria and gymnasium have already been made “to a high standard” and are ready for occupation.
Furniture and computer equipment are already fitted in the academic spaces and students’ union.
UWI, while it acknowledged that the Debe campus was largely underutilised for several years experiencing natural deterioration in certain areas, the facility, which was constructed with substantial government investment and was completed for use in 2019, was used by the last administration as a step-down medical facility during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
But after the campus was returned to the UWI, in May 2022, assessments were done and urgent restoration was deemed necessary.
The Debe campus was originally intended to house the new Faculty of Law which was to be the flagship faculty at the campus.
However, in 2017, staff and students from the Faculty of Law protested the move to Debe and in 2018, a decision was made by the then UWI administration not to relocate the Faculty of Law to the Debe campus.
Instead, UWI decided that a newly established self-financing and sustainable Global School of Medicine (GSM) would be the flagship of the campus. The decision to establish the GSM at this location and to designate it as a medical education hub was a strategic move, years in the making, following multiple rounds of internal planning and consultation.
This decision was formally approved by the University Council – the highest governing body of the regional UWI system, charged with financial and operational oversight – in 2021 and designated a core strategic objective of the campus.
Since then, UWI has made several pronouncements about this GSM, the most recent being pronouncements by the Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles at the University Council meeting earlier this month.
Aligned with UWI’s Triple A strategy (Access, Alignment, Agility), the GSM will serve primarily international students and will allow the university to meet the growing demand for medical education.
The statement added that notably, this will redound to the country’s economic and social benefit through increased access to education, medical services, international visibility and foreign exchange earnings.
Earlier this week, Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Dr Roodal Moonilal, toured the campus, which falls within his constituency, and expressed disappointment over its state of disrepair.
He called for a full investigation into the maintenance and use of the campus, which he said cost taxpayers oveTT$600 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) and remains largely unoccupied and in a state of disrepair.
UWI Principal, Professor Rose-Marie Antoine, who has denied the campus is in ruins, said she was “pleased to receive a letter from the Ministry of Tertiary Education…inviting us to a meeting to discuss the South Campus completion and programmes for there, including the Global School of Medicine. We are pleased that the Government is willing to invest in it”.
She told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper that the “the Global Medical School is neither new nor newly announced. That decision was made and announced in 2019. The media has covered this strategic objective many times, most recently in March during the Annual Council when both myself and Vice-Chancellor (Hilary) Beckles spoke extensively about the progress”.
But, speaking at a post Cabinet news conference on Thursday, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said that the UWI administration should not interfere with plans to open a law school at the campus.
“That campus, will house what the government says it will house. The administration will have no say in that. They cannot dictate to us what they want to put there,” she said, criticising the plans for the medical school.
“I don’t know where they come up with this thing… Don’t we have the Couva hospital? That’s what that was for. We did the San Fernando Teaching hospital. So what you coming now with some global medicine? Where you get that from?”
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said that the August opening date as indicated by UWI, will not take place.
“It will not happen in August. I don’t know where and who came up with that, that it is going to be opened in August. Because when the ministers visited the place, it is a total horror story,” she said, adding that she would not allow UWI to “sabotage and take over” the government’s plans for the campus.
Persad Bissessar said that while the initial plans were for a law campus, the government had some additional ideas on how to use the facility.
“We were clear then, and we are clearer now, and 10 years later we can do so much more. Yes we said a law faculty (and) I talked about doing forensics and law enforcement training (but) now with AI (artificial intelligence) and technology in the world, those are other areas we can explore for training for our children.”
She has warned the university that there would be consequences if they failed to support the government’s vision for the campus.
“I am warning UWI administration do not test me. If we have to do it, I will take that campus back and put it under government control to make sure we complete it and get the job done,” she said, accusing the UWI’s administrators and the previous government for not utilising the facility in the years since its completion.
“I think the biggest betrayal with this whole thing was by the administrators and those in charge at UWI…. You have done nothing for ten years so don’t come and cry now about what you can and cannot do.
“And you didn’t even tell us why you didn’t do it. So don’t come and put thing in the papers like you running it,” she said, calling on the UWI administrators to “step aside” and let the government get on with the business of opening the campus.
Professor Antoine told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper that the campus belongs to UWI.
“We’ve done significant repairs over the last year and a half. In fact, we’ve been working systematically on it, as we’ve reported at council meetings. Most of the main buildings are ready for occupation.
“ROYTEC is already moving in. As Minister Moonilal said, the Moot Court is beautiful—comparable to the ICJ. It’s a huge campus, and we couldn’t refurbish everything at once due to lack of funds. Now that we have a government that’s interested in the campus, which was gifted to us, we are optimistic that much more can be done.”.
