Deputy dean of academic affairs in the Faculty of Law, Professor Gilbert Kodilinye, gave that statistic yesterday at the Cave Hill Campus after the launch of UWI's 60th anniversary.

"That is aggravated by the fact that we have a quota system. So, for example, if you come from Trinidad and Tobago it is more difficult to get in than if you come from St Kitts-Nevis because Trinidad and Tobago has a limited quota of 55 or 60 per year for such a large population of 1.5 million," he said.

He noted there was tremendous pressure coming from Barbadian and Jamaican applicants to enter the Cave Hill Campus, "but the reason we cannot expand right now to take in more students is because the law schools in Trinidad and Jamaica have limited spaces".

"Under the original treaty, which created the university and the law schools, it was agreed that graduates of UWI have automatic right of entry into the law schools," said Kodilinye.

If "the powers-that-be" could be convinced to expand Cave Hill's faculty and law school, "we could probably take in 300 to 400 students a year. That might well satisfy the need for many students to come here to have a legal education", he said

"The law faculty is the only remaining faculty in the university where students come from all over the Caribbean . . . if the Jamaican students go to a local faculty in Jamaica then they will cease to come here . . . .

"So, it is a very challenging moment in the history of the university and a lot of people are worried that this possibility is certainly going to change the whole structure of their education," he charged. (TM)