UWI vice-chancellor to serve on UN project

Vice-Chancellor of UWI Prof Sir Hilary Beckles has been invited to serve as an expert on the UN's Futures of Higher Education Project.

A release from UWI said the project will be done by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO-IESALC).

The project is intended to “generate innovative and visionary ideas about the purpose and functions of higher education” it said.

The project will be led by a five-member panel which includesProfessors Ronald Barnett from University College, London; Mpine Makoe, from theUniversity of South Africa; Simon Marginson from Oxford; and Takyiwaa Manuh from the University of Ghana.

The panel is expected to provide data and ideas to inform the UNESCO-IESALC Futures of Education Global Project, produce a report by November on the higher education landscape beyond 2030 and to shape world opinion about the 2050 horizon.

Sir Hilary said, “The success of UWI is the basis of this very special opportunity and is therefore a tribute to my colleagues who have been in the engine room doing what many have said is impossible: building a global elite university in a region suffering from systemic economic decline to serve as a beacon of hope for our people increasingly driven into a mentality of doubt with growing despair.”

In 2017, Beckles was selected to serve as president of the 48-member association, Universities Caribbean, from which UWI’s Triple “A” Strategic Plan on access, alignment and agility was built.