Regional
Headquarters, Jamaica. 21 October 2019—The
University of the West Indies' (The UWI) is celebrating
its recently announced surge in ranking among the world’s
top universities, validating its vision of being an excellent global
university. And on Wednesday, October 16, the regional
academy also celebrated some outstanding staff for
their professional achievements and contributions towards the
University’s high performance, at the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards
for Excellence.

Considered
one of the annual highlights of The UWI calendar, the prestigious
ceremony was presided by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary
Beckles who presented academic, senior administrative, and
professional staff with awards for excellence in teaching, research,
service to the university community, and public service, or a
combination of areas. The Awards Ceremony which rotates
annually across the University’s campuses was held at Cave Hill
this year. 

“The
concept of excellence is not a simple one. It is not simply about
achievement”, said Vice-Chancellor Beckles during his remarks. “It
is about the location of that achievement within the context of the
evolution of a civilisation and the move towards sustaining it.” 

He
defined that the measure of an excellent university is one that is
committed to all of the big conversations, challenges and all the
major shortfalls that need to be remedied in a society. He stated,
“and therefore when we celebrate the excellence of our colleagues,
we are celebrating them within the context of all of these discourses
and their special effort and commitment towards achieving all of
these objectives.” 

Addressing
the Awardees directly, Vice-Chancellor Beckles said, “I wish to
thank you for all that you’ve done not only for yourselves but for
us a University.”

The
evening’s programme also included remarks
from Dr. Maurice D. Smith, University
Registrar, Professor V. Eudine Barriteau, Pro
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, 

Professor
Stephan Gift, Pro Vice-Chancellor Graduate Studies and
Research and Chair of the Selection Committee and
citations of the awards read by Mr. Jeff
Cumberbatch, Public Orator at the Cave Hill Campus.

In
a response on behalf of the awardees, Professor Justin Robinson
who was recognised for excellence in ‘Public Service &
Service to University’ also expressed a message of gratitude. He
stated, “I want to thank the leadership for continuing to seek
to be such a high quality university. I also want to commend
Caribbean governments and our various stakeholders for continuing to
provide the support for excellence at UWI. A University of
the type that is The UWI is not a cheap endeavour and I really want
to encourage Caribbean governments and our
stakeholders to continue to provide the support that The UWI
needs if it is to be excellent.”

A complete list of
the categories and for
2018/2019 awardees follows:

TEACHING

• 
  Dr Aisha Spencer,
  School of Education, Mona Campus
  
  

RESEARCH

• 
  Dr Adesh
  Ramsubhag, Department of Life Sciences, St Augustine Campus
  
  
• 
  Dr Georgiana
  Gordon-Strachan, Caribbean Institute for Health Research, Mona
  Campus
  
  

PUBLIC SERVICE &
SERVICE TO UNIVERSITY

• 
  Professor Justin
  Robinson, Faculty of Social Sciences, Cave Hill Campus
  
  

RESEARCH &
SERVICE TO UNIVERSITY

• 
  Professor Ann
  Marie Bissessar, Faculty of Social Sciences, St Augustine Campus
  
  

INTERNATIONAL
COLLABORATION

• 
  Dr O. Peter Adams,
  Faculty of Medical Sciences, Cave Hill Campus and Professor Rohan G.
  Maharaj, Faculty of Medical Sciences, St. Augustine Campus—Principal
  Investigators with the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research
  Network (ECHORN) and the Yale Transdisciplinary Collaborative Centre
  for Health Disparities Research focused on Precision Medicine
  (Yale-TCC).
  
• 
  Dr Saran Stewart,
  School of Education, Mona Campus for her work with the Global Access
  to Postsecondary Education (GAPS) initiative.
  

More
about the Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence

The
University of the West Indies’ Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for
Excellence programme was established in 1993 by Sir Alister McIntyre,
then Vice-Chancellor, to recognise outstanding achievements by
Academic staff members in the areas of Teaching, Research, Service to
the University Community, Contribution to Public Service, and
All-round Excellence in a combination of two or more of the areas. In
2003, the recognition scheme was expanded to include Senior
Administrative and Professional staff, and in 2012 the
Vice-Chancellor’s Departmental Award for Excellence was introduced
to recognise departments and units in the area of quality assurance
excellence. In 2016/2017, two new awards were added for Excellence in
Multi-Campus Research Collaboration (the One UWI Award) and
Excellence in International Collaboration (the Globalisation Award).
All awardees, having proven themselves exemplars in their respective
pursuits, are presented with a citation and a monetary prize. The
Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence is one of the highlights on
the University’s calendar. The ceremony takes on added significance
under the leadership of current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary
Beckles, who was one of the recipients of the inaugural Award.

About
The UWI

For
over 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has
provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider
world. The UWI has evolved from a university college of London in
Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally
respected, regional university with near 50,000 students and five
campuses: Mona
in Jamaica, St.
Augustine
in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave
Hill in
Barbados, Five Islands
in Antigua and Barbuda and an Open Campus. As part of its robust
globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with
universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa
including the State
University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and
Sustainable Development;
the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the
Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de
los Andes (UNIANDES); the UWI-China Institute of Information
Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African
and Diaspora Studies and the
Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of
Johannesburg (UJ).
The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and
postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering,
Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science &
Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. 

As
the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost
objective is driving the growth and development of the regional
economy. The
world’s most reputable ranking agency, Times
Higher Education,
has ranked The UWI among the top 600 universities in the world for
2019, and the 40 best universities in Latin America and the Caribbean
for 2018 and 2019.The
UWI has been the only Caribbean-based university to make the
prestigious lists. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

(Please
note that the proper name of the university is The University of the
West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)