MENU

University Management

Board for Undergraduate Studies

The Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies (OBUS) has three broad responsibilities within the University:

Policy – Responsibility to develop and coordinate policy initiatives to guide all aspects of undergraduate and sub-degree programming at The UWI and its regional and global affiliates.

ACCESS

The Board for Undergraduate Studies (BUS) formally approves policy with respect to undergraduate studies, and provides formal approval of all new or revised undergraduate and sub-degree programming.

Quality – The Quality Assurance Unit, located within OBUS, articulates, implements and manages The UWI’s academic quality assurance enhancement system.

Regionality – OBUS is charged with the preservation of the regional mandate of The UWI.

During the fifth year of The UWI’s Triple “A” Strategic Plan, OBUS rolled out initiatives in three core areas:

  • Implementation of The UWI Quality Policy university-wide
  • Student Retention and Success
  • Students as Partners in Learning These initiatives relate mostly to Strategic Objective AC3 under the ACCESS pillar: Improving the Quality of Teaching, Learning and Student Development.

Improving the Quality of Teaching, Learning and Student Development.

The Quality Assurance Unit (QAU) organised sixteen quality assurance reviews during 2021/2022, as follows:

Cave Hill

French
History
Pre-Clinical Sciences

Five Islands Campus

Campus not yet on the review cycle

Mona

Philosophy Section in the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy
Department of Basic Medical Sciences
Linguistics Section in the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (Spanish and French)
Department of Geography and Geology

Open Campus

Early Childhood Studies and Development

St. Augustine

History
Clinical Surgical Sciences
Spanish Section
Life Sciences
Physics
Mathematics and Statistics
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Sixteen quality evaluations were also conducted during the period under review. In addition to the core work of the Unit, officers continued to support quality-related matters on the campuses, such as, the Campus Quality Management Teams (CQMT), the Quality Policy, Academic Quality Assurance Committees, and Accreditation activities when required. The QAU has also continued to contribute to continuous quality improvement through activities such as training, teaching, research, membership on University committees and public service.

The UWI Quality Policy

All QAU officers continued work in support of the implementation of The UWI Quality Policy: Campus and Centre Quality Management Teams (C-QMTs) are functioning; all have met and there is a harmonized set of terms of reference, allowing for some contextual customization by campus. The SPOs and PO facilitated The Quality Policy Training Workshop at The UWI Five Islands Campus on December 6–7, 2021.

The UWI Quality Week Celebrations

Due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic the Campuses found innovative ways to celebrate The UWI Quality Week, which ran from November 8–12, 2021. The theme was “Sustainability: improving our products, people and planet”. For each day of the week, the spotlight was turned to one of the five campuses, where the focus was on the role of quality in sustainability and its environmental, social and governance (ESG) impact. Activities at the various campuses are available at https://www.uwi.edu/quality/pg-qualityday.php .

Maintaining Quality in a Pandemic

The QAU continues to conduct hybrid, and in most cases, completely online quality assurance reviews and evaluations. Although travel and public health restrictions have been mostly removed, the lack of financial resources continues to affect the ability of the University to support face-to-face reviews and evaluations. The move to virtual reviews has limited the range of professionals upon whom the QAU can draw, because of time zone differences, while the inability to offer travel to the region has also negatively affected the attractiveness of the process for external professionals.

The QAU has also been at the forefront of drafting new policies. These include the Policy on Delaying, Suspending and Terminating Programmes; which was approved by BUS in October 2021 and the Multi-Campus Teaching and Learning Initiative in May 2022.

The SPOs and POs continued their training of the Student Members of Quality Assurance Review Teams (SMQART). Two postgraduate students were apprenticed to review teams for Semester I, 2021–22. All students would be deployed with honoraria in Semester 2, 2021–22.

Scholarships

During the year, OBUS continued to offer and administer a range of regional undergraduate scholarships. These were important means of supporting the brightest and best students from across the region wishing to attend any campus of The UWI.

There were 102 UGC-funded regional scholarships awarded through OBUS in 2021– 2022, with an approximate total value of BDs$1,777,327 million. In addition, BDs$52,064 was allocated to University Bursaries across the three main physical campuses. These included 87 UWI Open Scholarships, 15 UWI/CXC CSEC Scholarships and 18 Caribbean Integration Programme Scholarships Additionally, BDs$143,558 was allocated to University Bursaries across the three main physical campuses.

Over 185 donor-sponsored scholarships were administered by OBUS in 2021/2022 with a total value of approximately J$71,781,852.09 or US$467,132.41. See details below:

Scholarships/Bursaries/Grants
awarded in J$ totalled: J$10,243,115.00

Scholarships /Bursaries/Grants
awarded in US$ totalled: US$320,522.00

Scholarships /Bursaries/Grants
awarded in CAD$ totalled: CAD$101,000.00

ALIGNMENT

National and Regional Alignment

During the year under review, the PVC BUS continued to serve on several committees and boards including Chair, Board for Undergraduate Studies; Chair, The University Quality Management Committee; Barbados Museum and Historical Society; Caribbean Credit Rating Services; Central Bank of Barbados; Fiscal Oversight Commission, St. Vincent and The Grenadines; and JMMB Global. In addition, PVC BUS published two peer publications: “Sovereign Risk Spill-overs in the Banking Sectors of Central America and the Caribbean,” Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Vol 73, 101379 and “The Essential Owen,” Speeches and Statements of Professor The Rt. Hon. Owen S. Arthur, Sage Publications 2021.

All members of the QAU continued research and publication in their own areas of academic interest, presented lectures, and gave seminar or conference presentations including the following publications:

Dottin, P. (IN PRESS). “Why do some stay, while others leave? A Case Study of Online BSc Management Studies at The UWI”. Caribbean Educational Research Journal, The UWI Cave Hill Campus, School of Education.

Perkins, Anna Kasafi (2021). “Bodies in Covid: A Caribbean Perspective,” Doing Theology in the New Normal: Global Perspectives, edited by Jione Havea. London: SCM Press, 34–53.

Perkins, Anna Kasafi. “A Triad for Quality Improvement? Quality Improvement, Leadership and Ethics among Higher Education Administrators in Jamaica,” In Caribbean Quality Culture: Persistent Commitment to Improving Higher Education, edited by Sandra Ingrid Gift. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2021, pp. 58–78.

Perkins, Anna (2021). “A Closer Look at the Secondary Impacts of COVID in the Caribbean: Why Ethics Still Matter”. Knowledge Series: Inclusive COVID-19 Recovery in Caribbean SIDS, June 2021. https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/ files/dr._anna_perkins.pdf

Kay Hinds-Thompson. “Continuous Quality Improvement in Graduate Employability”. In Caribbean Quality Culture: Persistent Commitment to Improving Higher Education, edited by Sandra Ingrid Gift. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2021, pp. 221.

Wheatley-Holness. J. 2021. The UWI Quality Policy: Towards a Quality Policy in Action. In Caribbean Quality Culture: Persistent Commitment to Improving Higher Education. Sandra Gift (ed.)

The Quality Education Forum, Issue No. 26

The Quality Education Forum (QEF), OBUS’ refereed Journal on Teaching and Learning, will be published online under the theme, “Student Support Systems and Student Success”. This journal which is managed by Dr. Angella Stephens on behalf of OBUS and edited by Professor Paulette Ramsay will be available to be accessed via the following link: http://uwi.edu/ undergraduatestudies/default.aspx

The UWI Quality Circle (Volume 23)

Volume 23 of The UWI Quality Circle, the newsletter of the QAU, co-edited by Dr. Anna Kasafi Perkins and Mrs. June Wheatley-Holness, focused on “COVID-19 and Quality at the UWI”.

AGILITY

Students as Partners in Learning

The University-wide Course Experience Review (CER) Instrument was successfully launched on new IT software, the QClassroom. Among the many features of the software are the dashboards with drill-down and data disaggregation capabilities, sharing capabilities and the software’s adaptability. Four campuses, Cave Hill, Mona, St. Augustine and the Open Campus, implemented the system in the 2021/2022 academic year.

One UWI Disability Policy

A single University-wide disabilities policy was developed and comments received from the academic boards.

Student Retention and Success

BUS continues to monitor and review student performances. The two-year Consolidated Report for the academic year 2020/2021, presented courses with high pass and high failure rates (25% and higher) across the UWI. The report provided instructive insights for BUS and the campuses.

The Foreign Language Policy

The policy is being implemented on a phased basis with specific timelines to be determined at the discretion of each of the UWI’s five campuses.

SCHOLARSHIPS

During the year, a range of regional undergraduate scholarships were offered as an important means of supporting the brightest and best students from across the region wishing to attend any campus of The UWI. One hundred and two UGC-funded regional scholarships were awarded through the Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies (OBUS) in 2021–2022, with an approximate total value of BDs$1,777,327 million.

In addition, BDs$52,064 was allocated to University Bursaries across the main physical campuses. These included 87 UWI Open Scholarships, 15 UWI/CXC CSEC Scholarships and 18 Caribbean Integration Programme Scholarships. Additionally, BDs$143,558 was allocated to University Bursaries across the Mona, St. Augustine and Cave Hill campuses.

Over 185 donor-sponsored scholarships were administered by OBUS in 2021–2022 with a total value of approximately J$71,781,852.09 or US$467,132.41.