Students, UWI is not the problem

THE EDITOR: The UWI is a world class institution and I am a proud student of the Faculty of Engineering. My esteemed lecturer and former principal, Brian Copeland, is no vampire when he indicated that tuition fees need to be increased.

The thing is law, medicine and engineering are big contributors to the finances of the UWI, and HR will tell you that this “big three” is saturated in TT. Then Colm Imbert, an engineer by profession, recommended that the university cuts some of its 300 courses.

In this regard, how are prospective students expected to fill the void of other professions that are in demand? Because the fields with the least enrolment will be the ones on the chopping block.

Put two and two together. Every budget, funding to tertiary education has been slashed (GATE, scholarships, arrears), UTT taking most of the blows. To maintain and improve the operations of The UWI, proposing an increase in fees to make up for shortfalls is understandable.

Lo and behold, when the Government rejects this proposal, it simultaneously decides to cut the subvention to the university by ten per cent. Make it make sense!

This is a political stunt by the Minister of Finance who is creating a front that the UWI cannot manage its affairs financially. Only for him to sugar-coat us, the students, that they “saved us” from the university increasing tuition fees when this PNM administration has been stifling tertiary education all along.

Fellow pelicans, do not fall for this charade and recognise that our beloved institution is not the villain in our pursuit of a world-class tertiary education and achieving upward social mobility.

Who knows, the minister might giggle and cut the subvention by another ten per cent until we read the riot act.

Student Guild, wake up and smell the coffee!

KENDELL KARAN

via e-mail