About Us
The University of the West Indies (The UWI) is the Caribbean region’s premier educational institution. Its mission is to unlock West Indian potential for economic and cultural growth by high quality teaching and research; aimed at meeting critical regional needs. The UWI recognises that as a regional university supported by the Caribbean peoples, and as the sole local organ equipped to meet local requirements and to relate its own developmental programmes to them, it should give priority to regional needs.
Established in 1993, the Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS), which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2023/24, is an inter-disciplinary Institute of The UWI, with a presence on all of The UWI campuses. The IGDS consists of the Office of the University Director, Regional Coordinating Office (RCO), located in the Regional Headquarters of The UWI and Campus-based Units, each with its own Head, located at the Mona, Jamaica, Cave Hill, Barbados, and St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago campuses. On October 10, 2008, the Centre for Gender and Development Studies was designated an Institute. On October 20, 2009, further approval was given for the Institute for Gender and Development Studies to deliver inter-disciplinary and multidisciplinary academic programmes and issue its own degrees.
The IGDS/RCO, located in the University Centre, consists of the regional coordinating mechanism of the IGDS, which seats the University Director (hereinafter called the Office of the University Director / IGDS Regional Coordinating Office [IGDS: RCO]) linked administratively and financially to the University Centre, and reporting to the Vice-Chancellor through the PVC for Graduate Studies and Research; and three Campus Based Units, funded by and reporting to their respective Campus Principals and to the Vice-Chancellor, through the University Director (previously designated Regional Coordinator).
The IGDS-RCO Administrative Structure
