MONTEGO BAY, St James –

Member of parliament for North West St James Dr Horace Chang yesterday urged the new batch of students at University of the West Indies Western Jamaica campus to ensure that they make the right choices when selecting their respective courses.

“You should choose a course that you enjoy because if you don’t, you will not do well and will be likely to fail it,” Dr Chang told the students yesterday during their orientation and registration exercise.

He challenged them to “think beyond” the classroom and to “exercise the creativity of their minds”.

“It is not all about the classroom. You must work with each other and engage yourselves in discussions because cross-fertilisation of ideas can be very interesting,” said Dr Chang, in whose constituency the campus is located.

He urged the students not to succumb to the economic and social pressures but rather to grasp the opportunity of a tertiary education which will enable them to make a more meaningful contribution to society.

The UWI Montego Bay campus was opened last year with 167 students.

So far this year more than 200 students have registered for the various courses that are being offered at the institution which is located across from the Sangster International Airport.

Since Monday, the new batch of students have been participating in a raft of seminars and lectures, as part of the institution’s weeklong general orientation and registration exercise, which ends tomorrow.