Antigua and Barbuda College of Advanced Studies to merge existing institutions

1. Will us students benefit from the change?

2. I hope the merge will not cause any confusion

3. Honestly, it seems like a good idea to combine resources.

4. As long as the merge brings better quality education, I have no problem.

5. I don’t see any mention of ABICE…Why is that?…Especially since they are talking about vocational education.What will happen to the staff of these institutions?

6. I’m using this channel because it’s the same one that was used to inform me of the name of the new entity and being aware that it is being considered a university, and I believe it’s appropriate to respond here.

   I was genuinely surprised to hear about the new name and direction toward university status. Students are so so confused, lecturers are confused. I just have to say WOW!As a lecturer, I don’t think it’s acceptable that we’re among the last to know about something this significant. We are all part of the college, and decisions of this scale should involve clear communication and consultation with staff.

   Accreditation is not just a formality—it has real implications. If we are positioning ourselves as a university, how is the accreditation process being handled? Who is overseeing it? Typically, a university must meet specific staffing standards, including a certain number of PhD holders. The majority of our current academic staff do not hold doctorates, so how is this being addressed? We presently have 4 doctoral holders, if so less. Is this why UWI will be collaborating with the new entity?

   Lastly, who is chairing the committee managing this transition? Transparency and involvement are key if this change is going to be successful.

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8. There they go again, “fixing” something that’s not broke. the institutions are different; serve a different purpose. This will only end in confusion.

9. How can you all just decided to tell the public this now. I don’t understand this. So when the children finish from this institution what kind of certificate are they getting? Associate degree or bachelor degree? This is to sudden. This is not how things are supposed to be. You all was supposed to consult with the people first before making these types of decision.

10. Ministers please fix the name. If it is a college it’s a College, if it is a University it’s a University. I don’t think it can be both at the same time.

11. Al should come after fixing existing education platforms, not before.

    This is gonna be the ebook situation all over again summary of ASCs online platform
    Poorly designed
    Not all lectures use it
    There’s 3 different platforms and some students barely use 1

    What the ministry of technology or who ever is in charge needs to do is stop wasting money on whoever does the poorly updated government websites, poorly set up school platforms, etc… and just use Microsoft 365 and have a competent team to set up a Moodle that allows payments as well as regular grade tracking, course management and whatever else is needed.

    I don’t know if I sound ignorant saying “this is something a group of people educated on our tax dollars should be able to do” but I find it ridiculous how many problems people in the country have with these institutions.

    How are they gonna have “AI integrated at it’s core” if Al needs good infrastructure. If the basics aren’t working, adding Al just makes things worse. Al can’t fix broken systems. It just sounds like a bunch of lingo these people are using to collect a lot of tax payers dollars and keep the system poorly taken care of. Switch around a bunch of people and continue with the same bad management, have poor design, not everyone on the same page, having a weird combination of “I have 1 class at 4pm at school but 3 online classes starting from 8 spread sparsely throughout the day.

12. 1) The plan to merge the various colleges first came about because Antigua wanted a local University. Now that UWI is here, there is no real need to merge them. They serve different purposes and should therefore be run differently. Practical courses should not necessarily be run in exactly the same way as more theoretical courses.
    2) The name is lame and confusing. Sounds like there is a separate University of Antigua and this will be a college of it. College and University mean two different things. Someone once suggested the “Sir Allister Francis Community College” what about that? Or the “Sir Allister Francis University College” ‘University College’s together sounds a bit different. It suggests a college preparing persons for entering University systems.

13. 3) There are many different subjects being taught by experts trained in different areas. They should all be consulted as to what would be best for their subject matter instead of taking a top down approach forcing conformity on all. That approach would not lead to efficiency for each programme.
    4) The infrastructure and basic technology and resource needs of the various institutions should be upgraded in order to run the most effective and efficient programmes. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money. Instead of just trying to cut costs via meger, which could decrease the quality of offered programmes, perhaps the institutions could host meaningful, educational fundraisers or create partnerships with private sector individuals and alumni allowing the general public to donate to specific initiatives or resource needs.

14. 5) AI has not yet been proven to be effective as the best path forward. It often makes students intellectually lazy. They believe they are learning something because the AI can produce decent sounding paragraphs, but the students themselves hardly know what they are doing. AI can thus make humans more ignorant, leading to future problems in maintaining the modern developed society that we are aiming for or already enjoy. People would be at the mercy of AI and it’s handlers if the education system is completely dependent on just learning how to use AI. AI also integrates mainly North American solutions to problems. A lot of traditional accumulated human knowledge from around the world will be lost if AI is prioritized in it’s current form. Believe it or not the American way is not always the best approach to addressing the needs of other countries. So, sure some students should learn to make use of AI, but becoming fully dependent on AI would be a huge mistake leading to a decline in human capabilities. If this goes forward, people who value a classical education should get together and start a private college system offering such. Ironically many tech giants raise their children in classical education schools where they learn to think for themselves before being introduced to too much technology…

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16. @thoughts. I agree with you 100 percent. This constant throwing around of “AI” , has gotten ridiculous since it gives that sense that hardly anyone, or at least those that that use it the most, knows what it is all about! I had a discussion with a lecturer the other day and he is bemoaning the fact that students don’t try learn anything anymore but turn to this blasted AI for all their answers.
    Now don’t get me wrong. I am all for technological advances but I believe ASC, ABIIT etc should train students to eventually go to UWI or elsewhere. But that is happening now so why tamper with it.

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