UWI Engineering Alumni formed
ENGINEERING graduates of the University of the West Indies (UWI) are the latest professional group to join the UWI Alumni Association.
The UWI Engineering Alumni will function as an autonomous umbrella grouping of graduates of the UWI Faculty of Engineering, and will partner with the UWI Alumni Association in a number of activities and initiatives, including the institution’s 60th anniversary celebrations next year.
Professor Clement Sankat, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, UWI, St Augustine, told a Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) luncheon last Tuesday that the faculty has had 6,234 graduates in Engineering & Surveying since it opened in 1961.
The luncheon honoured recently-retired president of the University of Technology, Dr Ray Davis. Sankat told the engineers that current enrolment at the Faculty of Engineering stands as 1,487 undergraduates (BSc) and 756 post-graduates (PG Dip, MSc, MPhil, PhD), delivered across its five Departments – Civil & Environment, Chemical, Electrical & Computer, Mechanical & Manufacturing, Surveying & Land Information.
“Jamaican students have been an integral part of the Faculty and represent one-third of all graduates in undergrad programmes,” the professor said, adding that the Faculty graduates 340 engineers and surveyors, as well as 130 masters graduates annually.
He disclosed, however, that enrolment of Jamaican students in the faculty has been declining in recent years and called for government, business industry and professional organisations like the JIE to offer funding support for Jamaican students to study engineering at UWI.
“In doing so”, Sankat said, they will assure their students “a rich, West Indian experience and a quality education with a global reach, both of which will serve them well in this era of the CSME and the need to build a stronger Caribbean”.
The university, he added, “is not focused on simply graduating engineers, but is placing emphasis on well-rounded professionals with skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, engineering management and leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship”.
“Engineers should not only be trained to access jobs, but also as employers of the future”, he told the gathering.
Sankat said the UWI was extremely proud of its engineering graduates “who can be seen all over the region adding value in major industries such as Trinidad’s oil, gas and energy sector, Barbados’ light and power industry and Jamaica’s construction sector”.
