MINISTER OF FINANCE and Economic Affairs Chris Sinckler has restated Government’s commitment to supporting the University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill Campus, despite Barbados’ economic challenges.
But he has cautioned the university that Government’s investments will mean nothing if the campus cannot provide graduates who can drive the new development agenda of Barbados in areas such as agro-business, climate change and renewable energy.
Speaking at an awards ceremony for benefactors of the campus at the Errol Barrow Centre For Creative Imagination Thursday night, Sinckler said Government had been asked to provide $509.1 million in funding to the Cave Hill Campus between 2008 and 2011. He added that despite the global recession and reduced income from its revenue areas, Government continued to provide the campus with as much funding as it could. He said arrangements had been completed to clear the outstanding debt to the university, a matter about which the university had repeatedly complained.
Addressing an audience that included representatives of 50 of the campus’ 300-plus benefactors, the Minister of Finance cautioned it could no longer be business as usual since Barbados and the higher education sector were now operating in “a fundamentally new environment”. (GC)
