Regional
Headquarters, Jamaica, Friday, November 15, 2019—The
University of the West Indies (The UWI) and the University of Miami
(UM) have teamed up as partners within in a Hemispheric University
Consortium (HUC). The second meeting of the Consortium was held at
The UWI’s Regional Headquarters in Jamaica, in October and
co-chaired by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles and Dr
Julio Frenk, President of the University of Miami.

A
year ago, Dr Julio Frenk reached out to Professor Sir Hilary
Beckles—among other University presidents—with a visionary idea
for the Consortium and since then the two have been working
steadfastly to bring the project to maturity. Details of the
Consortium’s governance were ironed out and agreed to in a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed during the meeting. 

The
HUC comprises 14 universities across Latin America, the Caribbean,
Canada, and the United States. Partnerships such as this Consortium
are imperative to tackle some of the hemisphere’s most pressing
problems, such as public health, climate change, sustainability and
resilience issues. HUC Member universities are pursuing a higher
level of integration and, with a spirit of co-operation, have agreed
to share knowledge, discovery, and understanding.

Vice-Chancellor
Beckles described The UWI as a prime example of inter-governmental
collaboration and reiterated the institution’s commitment to the
HUC. He said, “The University of the West Indies is deeply
committed to this consortium. We are passionately committed to it
because we believe it is a very relevant strategy and effective tool
to enable universities across this hemisphere to collaborate in
partnership in the search for solutions that will be of a regional
and hemispheric nature. This project to which we are committed is one
of the many institutions we believe shows very effectively our
commitment of higher education to finding sustainable solutions to
the problems facing our people across this hemisphere and to
recognise that many of these challenges cannot be met on a singular
basis, cannot be met on a national basis, but can only be met on a
hemispheric and regional basis.”

Meanwhile, Dr
Frenk termed the consortium, formally established in 2018,
as “a unique mechanism for collaboration across the hemisphere
based upon the principles of equality, free exchange, mutual
responsibility and mutual accountability for the activities of the
consortium.” He noted that, “the consortium has already proven to
be a very active platform for connecting institutions with a
like-minded focus on creating knowledge and stimulating exchange
around that knowledge on some of the most important consequential
problems faced by our region and by the entire planet.”

The
consortium agreement commits signatories to share academic and
infrastructure resources and collaborate in addressing the challenges
facing universities and global society, through a range of broad and
dynamic key thematic areas with priority given to “human prosperity
and well-being” and “climate change, sustainability and
resilience”.

Twelve
of the fourteen member universities present on this occasion and
signing the MOU were: Universidad Austral (Argentina); Universidade
de São Paulo (Brazil); York University (Canada); The University of
the West Indies (Caribbean); Pontificia Universidad Católica de
Chile (Chile); Universidad de los Andes (Colombia); Universidad de
Costa Rica (Costa Rica); Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y
Maestra (República Dominicana); Universidad San Francisco de Quito
(Ecuador); Tecnológico de Monterrey (México); Universidad de las
Américas Puebla (México); and University of Miami (United States). 

The Latin-American Caribbean Centre (LACC), led by Ambassador Gillian Bristol—which coordinates The UWI’s participation within the Consortium—organised the day’s events.

END

Notes

Photo
captions

1. Vice-Chancellor
   of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles and President of the
   University of Miami, Dr Julio Frenk in conversation during the
   second meeting of the Hemispheric University Consortium (HUC) held
   at The UWI’s Regional Headquarters in Jamaica in October.
   
2. Group
   photo of University Presidents who attended the second meeting of
   the Hemispheric University Consortium (HUC) held at The UWI’s
   Regional Headquarters in Jamaica in October. Front row: fourth from
   left is Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles and
   right, end is President of the University of Miami, Dr Julio Frenk.