(The UWI), Press Release 

Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal. Friday, March 12, 2021 – The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Open Campus 2021 Council Meeting will be hosted online. This is the second consecutive year that the Campus Council meeting is being hosted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual governance meeting takes place on Friday, March 19, 2021 and starts at 10:00 am Eastern Caribbean time.  

  The Campus Council is the highest decision-making body of the Campus and will be presided over by Honourable Ambassador Dr June Soomer, Chairman of The UWI Open Campus Council. 

Approximately 50 delegates representing ministries of education, The University of the West Indies, UWI Alumni and Guild of Students will be in attendance at the annual Council meeting via online platforms. 

  The first segment of the morning session will be opened to invited guests, the public and the regional media. This segment will be broadcast live on UWItv and also streamed live online on the Open Campus Facebook and YouTube channels. Honourable Ambassador Dr June Soomer, Chairman of Council; Dr Luz Longsworth, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Global Affairs and Principal of the Open Campus; and Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI will address the public session. 

  Dr Longsworth will present the Principal’s Report, a key feature of the Council meeting. Among the accomplishments Dr Longsworth will highlight are the Campus’ agility in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic; The Open Campus assistance to the education sector in the region with transitioning to online; Continued growth in students application numbers; use of innovative virtual events to market the Campus’ programmes; partnerships the Campus has entered into with regional and international agencies, and the Campus’ first virtual graduation.  

  The meeting will also receive and discuss the Audited Financial Statements, the Audit Committee Report, Student Guild Statement, and The UWI Open Campus Alumni Report. In addition, the meeting will discuss matters relating to outstanding government contributions, reorganization of resource mobilization, The UWI Global Campus, and the Guyana Project.  

  The Campus will host a press conference following the public session of the meeting.