The University of the West Indies (The UWI) wishes to bring clarity to conversations in the local media surrounding ongoing recruitment for new faculty at the Five Islands Campus. In its commitment to designing a world-class university that serves the needs of Antigua and Barbuda and the wider OECS sub-region, it is increasing its cadre of academic faculty to support the Campus’ overall development plan.
The Five Campus launched operations in September 2019, with a structure that included three Schools, namely: The School of Humanities and Education; the School of Health and Behavioural Sciences; and the School of Management, Sciences and Technology. This academic structure, accommodated for by The UWI Charter, proved the most cost effective and efficient approach for the new campus as The UWI reimagines its education offering in the 21st Century.
As part of the development and expansion of The UWI, Five Islands, the human capital development of its staff and faculty is a critical input. Therefore, the Campus embarked on a plan to recruit faculty members to fill critical vacancies in its teaching and learning, and research portfolio. This process follows closely, the traditions employed by all world-class academic institutions in filling faculty vacancies. As the number one ranked University in the Caribbean, in the top 2% in Latin America and top 4% of global universities, the Campus is duty-bound to ensure that the recruitment process follows the most rigorous standards for academic recruitment, is transparent and ethical.
These principles guided the recent call for applications to fill the critical vacancies at the Campus. The UWI, as an equal opportunity employer, is committed to ensuring that all persons who meet the minimum requirements are given a fair chance to compete for the limited posts at this time. This includes external and internal members of the campus community. As such, all positions were advertised internally at Five Islands and across all the campuses of The UWI. Further, they were advertised in local, regional and international media in order to attract the largest pool of talent from which to make a final selection. This approach will ensure that the Five Islands Campus benefits from the best human capital resource in the areas of need.
Some opinion-editorials and media commentary suggest that these advertisements have raised some anxieties among existing faculty members at the Campus regarding their future with the institution. The Campus would like to state, for the record, that regular meetings have been held with current faculty in relation to these recruitments. Indeed, some members of the current faculty also contributed to drafting of aspects of the advertisements for the vacancies. All current members of faculty on the Campus have an equal opportunity to submit applications for the positions. The UWI will give careful consideration to these applications, like all others.
The UWI, through its Five Islands Campus remains committed to serving the population of Antigua and Barbuda and the wider OECS region through increasing access to high quality tertiary education. To this end, the University continues to exhibit transparent, ethical and accountable practices in its operations to ensure it acquires the highest quality human resources to assist it in achieving its mission and vision as laid out in its strategic plan. The University will provide opportunities for local talent to grow while infusing global talent to nurture its developmental path. It is this global vision that will ensure a strong and vibrant academic community at the Five Island Campus in Antigua and Barbuda.
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
UWI-Five Islands should be advertising its employment opportunities on the Antigua Newsroom website just like how Antigua College is.
Something seems fishy about the hiring practices at UWI-Five Islands, please look into it!
Also, why isn’t UWI-Five Islands trying to hire faculty and lecturers from other countries, to create diversity?
Honestly, UWI has too many Black professors and teachers, they need to some Whites and Asians too!
Not at all. Except out of dire need, we do not specially need any white or Asain professors down at Five Islands. There are sufficient top-notch black professors locally, regionally and internationally who have been marginalised for centuties solely on account of their race. We don’t need unnecessary distractions. Our top students even at the local public secondary school level, have been and continue to be taught by qualified fully commited black educators. The same holds true at the our name-brand, expensive, exclusive, private local institutions. No thanks. If it ain’t broke, don’t “fix” it!
It sure needs more diversity to eliminate bias in grading. It’s a small population where everybody knows everybody and petty prejudices can creep in easily. Imagine the huge difference in the case of a student getting just average grades whilst at the ASC Undergrad dept but becoming a straight A student on campus elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with diversity. Certain lecturers carry grudges against former students and mark them unfairly.
Comments are closed.