THE?UNIVERSITY?OF the West Indies’ Cave Hill campus is still heavily dependent on Government for its funding, according to available figures.
Information gleaned from annual reports over a ten-year period showed that government funding moved from 54 per cent of total revenues in 1999 to 65 per cent in 2009. The remainder of revenues came from tuition and fees; special funds; investment income; and commercial operations.
Campus principal Sir Hilary Beckles and Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler have been at odds over financial figures relating to the campus. Sir Hilary reported last month that the government owed the campus $90 million, but Sinckler has disputed this figure and in order to get the facts has indicated that a special audit will be undertaken of the facility by the Auditor General.
Sinckler last Sunday spoke of the rise in the long and short debt which the campus has incurred and which the government will have to service, but this has been rejected by an official connected to the campus who indicated that the funding will be serviced by Cave Hill itself.
The 2009 annual report had observed that “the Government remains by a long way the major source of revenue for the campus”.
There was no clear evidence for sizeable philantrophic contributions from the private sector to help with the rapid expansion which the campus has undergone in recent years with student enrolment now said to be over 8 000.
Government funding to the campus moved from $51 million in 1999 to $127 million ten years later with tuition and fees moving from $11 million to $30 million during the same period. Special funds were relatively flat while investment income rose by almost $2 million.
The notes to the debt details in the campus’ 2009 annual report showed that in 2005, CLICO entered into a partnership with the UWI for the construction of a teaching facility at a cost of approximately $4.2 million. The financing was structured through a grant from CLICO?of $1.5 million and a loan of $2.7 million.
On May 1, 2006, CLICO?made available to UWI an additional loan of $4 million of which $2 million was drawn on June 23, 2006, while $26 million was borrowed from the Barbados National Bank.
The bulk of this financing went to upgrading and expanding the medical faculty and some funds were used for the construction of the theatre and cinema at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination.
The other major loan obtained by the UWI Cave Hill was in 2008 when it got $16 million from Butterfield bank to finance the construction of infrastructure and costs relating to the expansion of the campus. Total campus expenditures which stood at $90 million in 2002 was $171 million seven years later.
 The expansion to a full medical degree had a major impact on campus expenditure with cost for the administration departments fluctuating between $49 million and $54 million between 2002 and 2007, then jumping to $83 million from 2008 and rising by another $3 million the following year. (ES)
