UWI Five Islands Targets Gender Gap with Male-Focused Programmes
The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus is stepping up efforts to address a persistent challenge in higher education across the Caribbean: the gender imbalance in student enrollment. With women comprising over 75% of the campus population, university officials are now actively rolling out programmes aimed at attracting more male students.
“We are seeing the same pattern that exists across the wider UWI system—women outnumbering men significantly in tertiary education,” said Professor Justin Robinson, principal of the Five Islands Campus. “But we’re not looking to lower female enrollment—we’re trying to bring more men into the academic fold.”
Two of the campus’s newest degree offerings—Criminology and Criminal Justice, and a suite of sports-focused programmes—have been designed with male engagement in mind.
The Criminology programme, in particular, is already generating strong interest from male applicants in law enforcement across the OECS. Delivered through a flexible combination of online, in-person, and fly-in instruction, it allows police and prison officers to pursue their degrees while continuing to serve in their home countries.
Similarly, the Faculty of Sport has introduced degree programmes in areas such as coaching and sport science, which are expected to appeal to young men passionate about athletics and careers in sport.
“Sport is not just a form of recreation—it’s a gateway to education, opportunity, and personal development,” Robinson said. “We believe that offering clear career pathways through these programmes will resonate with male students who might not otherwise consider university.”
Education Minister Daryll Matthew, who also oversees sport, has backed the move and encouraged deeper partnerships between the Ministry and the university to create access points for young men who may be disengaged from formal education systems.
“We must do more to ensure that boys and young men see higher education as a place where they belong,” Matthew said. “UWI Five Islands is showing that the right programmes can make a difference.”
Campus leaders are also exploring additional strategies, including targeted scholarships, mentorship programmes, and alternative matriculation pathways to help more males qualify and succeed at the university level.
With the goal of reaching 5,000 students within the next decade, UWI Five Islands is placing inclusive access at the centre of its expansion plan—and closing the gender gap is a key part of that mission.
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They should look at offering some aviation courses as well
Of course you go have way more females enrolling. Men there that want go UWI but y’all don’t have no kinda mechanical/Electrical/civil/ engineering courses. Man have to be going abroad, elsewhere to study. So yes, until then it will be mostly females enrolling.
Technical areas such as Facility Management, Project Management, Energy, fields to consider tapping into and you will see.
@Dothrightthing that is really not the solution to the problem of male underrepresentation at UWI. You would be surprised to know that even in the Faculty of Engineering at UWI St. Augustine there are more females than males. At all the law faculties now there are also more females than males. It is a serious problem that has to be addressed before the marginalization of males in our societies becomes unsolvable.
Males are not necessarily being marginalized even if females outnumber males in traditional university programmes including engineering. University courses are traditionally more theoretical whereas many more males than females prefer more practical work. For major projects and high level work, yes theory is needed to manage the project but for basic day to day tasks, less is needed so why waste years studying unneeded theories. As long as those other males are being trained SOMEWHERE e.g. trade schools or apprenticeship programmes it doesn’t matter if they are not at a traditional theoretical university. What we don’t want is for them to get no post-secondary education at all and turn into bums or criminals leaching off of other person’s hard work. So, what are the statistics on post-secondary education in general for males vs females? That’s really the question. Persons graduating from trade schools should be given similar respect to persons graduating from theoretical programmes so those men don’t feel “less than” and cause social problems but instead focus their energy on helping to build up what’s missing to maintain the comfort and well-being of all. Or, is UWI going to absorb all the trade school programmes?
I don’t know what is in a typical engineering programme but what about innovative programmes including some kind of high level green engineering combining geology, meteorology, geography, environmental science and other traditional basic sciences as well as the math to address modern climate-resistance building issues. Architects, major contractors and others might benefit from such knowledge. Also, what about practical MBA or basic business degrees for those who did not go to university but started a successful business and want to expand or take it to the next level?
What about …what about … What about the fact that UWI was created as an unit of University College London 62 years ago, initially with a medical program as it’s core.
What about throughout the UWI service area we still need the Cuban Medical Brigade.
Educating a society is not a what about.
Five Islands claim they have an Ai program let’s see what happens in the future.
World Bank just issued a scating report on the dismal state of regional education at the primary and secondary level. Addressing that Report is the real what about.