UNESCO/UWI LAUNCH CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITIES PROJECT FOR INTEGRATED DISTANCE EDUCATION
Five universities across the English, Dutch and French-speaking Caribbean are participating in a collaborative distance education project aimed at improving access to their services through increased use of information and communication technologies. They are The University of the West Indies (UWI), the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), the University Quisqueya (Haiti), the University of Suriname and the University of Guyana.
The University of the West Indies is the executing agency for the project “Human Resource Development in Electronically Enhanced Teaching, Administration and Material Distribution”, nicknamed CUPIDE (Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education). The project is being financed under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)/Japanese Funds-in-Trust for Capacity-building of Human Resources, to the tune of US$1.1 million.
The objective of CUPIDE is to build the human resource capacity in the provider institutions through provision of training for academic, administrative and technical personnel at the five institutions in the use of information and communication technologies for teaching, administration and the delivery of course materials. There is also provision of hardware, software and technical assistance. The human resources of the participating countries will also be strengthened through the delivery of programmes developed under the project.
Speaking at the recent ceremony to launch the project, Deputy Principal of the UWI Mona Campus, Mr. Joseph Pereira, said that the project would assist in encouraging recognition of distance education as a viable method of course delivery. He said it would facilitate collaboration in a number of areas, including course production, adding that he envisaged the day when it might be possible for the different institutions to draw on individual strengths in course offerings, so that students at one instititution could register for courses at another, if there was greater expertise available at the other institution.
Mr. Pereira expressed appreciation for the continuing support that the University had received from both UNESCO and the Government of Japan. He noted that while UWI had participated in other collaborative projects with individual universities across the region, the mechanisms of collaboration had sometimes been difficult. He said that the use of technology would help to overcome some of the problems, which had arisen.
The ceremony was also addressed by the Ambassador of the Government of Japan, His Excellency Isao Otsuka, who emphasized his government’s long-term commitment to poverty eradication through human resource development. He said that Japan’s own transition from a developing to a developed country had been facilitated by its decision to invest in the training of its people.
Professor Lawrence Carrington, UWI Pro Vice Chancellor for Non-Campus Countries and Distance Education who chaired the ceremony, expressed gratitude to the Government of Japan for its generosity and continued commitment to valuable developmental intervention in the region. He also thanked UNESCO for its reliability in sustaining close engagement in development in the region, for its accessibility and for its resourcefulness in identifying sources of technical and financial support. Professor Carrington further stated that he was “confident that the spirit of common purpose would flower with this project to produce a lasting union among the participating institutions”.
Mr. Michael Morrissey, representing the Director of the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean, Mrs. Helene-Marie Gosselin, informed the gathering that UNESCO had identified nine strategic priorities to be achieved over the next six years. The first of these, he said, was the encouragement of an innovative approach to the delivery of education through the use of information and communication technologies and distance education. He noted that UNESCO placed great emphasis on collaboration as a means of achieving objectives and, in this regard, recognized the trailblazing role that UWI continues to play in distance education in the region.
CARICOM Representative, Dr. Morella Joseph also addressed the ceremony and offered CARICOM’s full support for the project. The vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. Ariel Azael, representing the University Quisqueya in Haiti. Others in attendance at the ceremony were Dr. Dennis Wip of University of Suriname, Dr. Marlene Cox of the University of Guyana, Dr. David Rand and Mr. Omar Brown of UTech, Professor Badri Koul and Ms. Christine Marrett (Project Manager) of UWI.