St. Vincent and the Grenadines has the greatest presence at the University of the West Indies (UWI) in the region. This is according to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, while speaking on the Issue at Hand program.
The Prime Minister said that only Trinidadians and Barbadians have greater numbers of students at the St. Augustine and Cave Hill campuses.
“At Cave Hill, the only nationality which has more students than us there are Barbadians. At St. Augustine, only Trinidadians are more than Vincentians. At Mona, you have Jamaicans, Trinidadians and ourselves. We are significantly more at the University of the West Indies than any other country other than those from Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also said that there are attending the UWI through the open campus, noting that SVG’s open campus numbers have now surpassed that of St. Lucia, despite their larger population.
“At the Open Campus currently, the latest numbers I have are: 834–don’t have the number in front of me—at the graduate level, and 40 at graduate level, and just over 100 who do short term courses, three month type courses,” Gonsalves said.
He noted that St. Vincent and the Grenadines had surpassed St. Lucia’s Open Campus numbers.
“St. Lucia used to have the most students at the Open Campus, they have a population—they have 65/70,000 persons more than us, population, but we have gone past St. Lucia, in terms of the number at the Open Campus,” he said.
Prime Minister Gonsalves noted that “overwhelmingly” the students that aare pursuing studies at the UWI open campus are supported by the Government, drawing reference to the over 900 tuition scholarships that were granted by the Government earlier this year.