KINGSTON, Jamaica — Professor Dennis Gayle, executive chancellor of the University College of the Caribbean (UCC), has been invited by the Caricom Secretariat to sit as a member of the Caricom Technical Working Group (TWG) for the tertiary education sector.

 The group is headed by Professor Compton Bourne, past president of the Caribbean Development Bank and former chancellor of the University of Guyana and pro vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies

The UCC, in a news release today, said Professor Gayle has extensive experience in university leadership and management, having served at six major accredited universities in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Caribbean. UCC said his professional background includes work as a banker and as a senior Jamaican diplomat in several world capitals and at the United Nations. He is also a Fellow of the American Council on Education.

As a member of the group, Gayle will assist the working group to formulate policy proposals to address public funding, investment and labour market linkages in the tertiary education sector.

This technical working group is also expected to address regional standards to regulate research, development and innovation (RDI) in collaboration with the University of the West Indies/Caricom initiative with the International Development Partners.

The UCC said that another issue of concern is the need for an effective regional governance mechanism to address issues inclusive of financing, investment, labour market alignment, and RDI among member States and regional institutes, colleges and universities.

It said the technical working group for the tertiary education sector is one of six groups that the Caricom Secretariat is establishing in its effort to ensure that the region has policies and standards for regional education and training. These technical working groups are meant to support the implementation of Caricom’s Education and Human Resource Development 2030 Strategy.

These groups are set to become operational during January 2017 and will sit for an initial period of eight months.