THE Mico University College will, on December 4, confer honorary degrees in leadership and education on two outstanding Jamaican educators.

The Mico, set to celebrate 175 years in 2011, will grant Doctor of Education degrees, honoris causa, to the Honourable Burchell Whiteman, OJ, former Education Minister; and Dr the Honourable Alfred Sangster, OJ, JP, retired principal of College of Agriculture, Science and Technology (CAST, now the University of Technology), during the graduation ceremony of the Class of 2010, 172nd Batch.

Whiteman and Sangster have both served in the field of educational development in Jamaica for more than 40 years.

Whiteman currently serves as the chair of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Board of Governors, having been appointed as the Caribbean’s regional representative to the COL Board in 2002.

He began his career as a teacher and later was appointed to the position of principal at the York Castle High School in 1969 and subsequently at the Brown’s Town Community College. During his years spent at these institutions, he developed the reputation throughout the island of being a professional educator, par excellence.

The year 1989 saw the dawning of a new chapter in the educator’s life when he entered politics, becoming an elected Member of Parliament and being immediately appointed Minister of State for Education. In 1992, Whiteman joined the Cabinet as Minister of Education, Youth & Culture, a position he held for 10 years before deciding not to run in the 2002 elections.

During his tenure as Minister of Education, the Mico University College won support of the ministry as it embarked on new thrusts in upgrading teachers in training for the primary and secondary education school system. The Mico benefitted from the policies governing values and attitudes and access to information.

In 2006, he retired from politics, stepping down from the post of Minister of Information and Leader of Government Business in the Senate; this same year he was awarded the Order of Jamaica for his outstanding contribution to education and the legislature and was named an Honorary Fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning. The following year, he was appointed Jamaica’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and returned to Jamaica upon completing his term of office in 2009.

Sangster, a Munro College alum, pursued degrees at Queen’s University, Belfast and the University of London. His early professional career saw him beginning as an assistant lecturer in 1952 and rising through the ranks to senior lecturer in chemistry and later to vice-dean at the University College of the West Indies (later named University of the West Indies) in 1970.

The pivotal change in his career came when he became principal and later president of the CAST during the years 1970-1996. Under his tenure, the enrolment of students increased from 1,200 to over 6,000, even while introducing over 50 new programmes of study and the creation of three new departments.

An avid sports enthusiast, Sangster has represented Jamaica in hockey and is a former chairman of the Carreras Sports Foundation, and the Jamaica National Relays. He was the instigating factor in establishing UTech’s Department of Sport and has presided over the Jamaica Intercollegiate Sports Association for several years.

A Justice of the Peace, he was awarded the Order of Jamaica and the Commander of the Order of Distinction for his stellar service in education, and has received Honorary Doctorates from UTech and UWI. To add to the raft of awards, he has also copped the Gleaner Honour Award and the Institute of Jamaica’s Gold Musgrave Medal.

Since being approved as a degree-granting institution in 2006, the Mico University College has conferred honorary doctorates on Dr the Honoural R Karl James, chairman of the board of directors, of the Mico; former Governor General, His Excellency The Most Honourable Sir Howard Cooke ON, GCMG, GCVO, CD; and Dr the Honourable Ambassador Dudley Thompson, QC.

More than 600 students will receive degrees at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.