The
UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica. Friday, October 02, 2020—Navida
Bachan, a graduate student at The University of the West Indies (The
UWI), has been awarded the prestigious Routledge/Round
Table Commonwealth Studentship Award
for the 2020-2021 academic year. Only two studentships are available
each year; one designated for a UK-registered student and the other
for one student from other Commonwealth countries, which was awarded
to Navida.

Founded
in 1910, the Round Table
is the oldest English-language international affairs journal and
provides analysis and commentary from research on all aspects of
international affairs. The journal is the major source for coverage
of the policy issues concerning the contemporary Commonwealth and its
role in international affairs, with occasional articles on themes of
historical interest. Navida, who is studying for a PhD in Governance
at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies
(SALISES) at The UWI St. Augustine Campus, has focused her research
on investigating health system governance and its impact on the
performance of health systems in Trinidad and Tobago and the UK. She
has a special interest in the tenets of participatory governance in
the health sector and how they have been applied in Commonwealth
contexts that have facilitated improved health outcomes for
populations.

Navida’s
professional work as a researcher in the Trinidad and Tobago health
sector, both at the national and sub-national levels, has contributed
significantly to her insights about health system governance and its
link to health system performance, and subsequently healthcare
delivery. She intends to use the Routledge/Round Table Commonwealth
Studentship towards understanding key governance components within
the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). Specifically, her study of
the NHS will begin with a review of key legislation, and culminate in
interviews with health officials. She envisions her findings being
translated into policy measures that contribute towards the overall
strengthening of the Trinidad and Tobago health system as well as
those of developing countries in general.

She
holds a BSc in Economics and an MSc in Development Statistics with a
specialisation in Social and Demographic Statistics, both from The
UWI. In 2017 she was also the recipient of the Jack Harewood Award
for ‘Most Outstanding Student’ in her MSc in Development
Statistics programme at SALISES,
St. Augustine and spent a semester at the University of Alberta as a
visiting graduate student; there, she expanded her knowledge of
mixed-methods research for her PhD while enhancing her skills through
International House's Global Leadership Development programme.