A three-day conference to explore vulnerabilities concerning higher education will open today at the Jewel Runaway Beach & Golf Resort in St Ann.

The event, being hosted by the Association of Caribbean Higher Education Administrators (ACHEA), will be held under the theme ‘Higher Education Vulnerabilities: A Caribbean Response’.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr Maurice Smith, will be keynote speaker at today’s opening ceremony.

Plenary speakers will include professor of public health and ageing at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Denise Eldermire-Shearer, whose presentation willfocus on ‘Health and Wellness’, and the university’s Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Board for Graduate Studies and Research, Prof Dale Webber who will speak on ‘Climate Change and the Role of the Higher Education Administrator’.

Several speakers from the Caribbean, United States, Canada and the United Kingdom will also make presentations at the conference.

The ACHEA is an independent organisation devoted to the promotion of the highest professional and ethical standards in the field of administration in higher education in the Caribbean. It was launched at UWI, Mona, in 2001 with the aim of bringing together like-minded administrators in tertiary-level institutions, regionally, to address issues relating to the ever-changing roles of these institutions and administrators.