UWI Open Campus Signs MoU with Caribbean Maritime Institute
Dr Fritz Pinnock (second left), Executive Director, Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI), and Professor Sir Hilary Beckles (second right), UWI Vice-Chancellor, The University of the West Indies (UWI), sign a Memorandum of Understanding last Thursday, September 8, 2016, to facilitate capacity building, joint research and expanded programme offerings to meet the growing demands of the job market. Witnessing the signing are: Captain Johnny Pretell, Director of the CMI’s School of Marine and Professional Studies; Dr Beverly Shirley (standing), Programmes Co-ordinator, UWI Open Campus; and Dr Luz Longsworth, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal, UWI Open Campus. The agreement covers areas such as programme development, instructional resource sharing, teaching and research and will create a powerful means for engaging maritime skills and academics through research-oriented curricula. It will also support, sustain, expand, and strengthen capacities across the institutions and encourage the development of innovative initiatives, the sharing of expertise to supplement internal competencies, and broker novel areas of specialisation, the institutions said. “This positive development is expected to contribute significantly to nation-building in Jamaica and across the Caribbean [and] appropriately fits into the education ministry’s wider thrust to advance schools and cater to the needs of students through collaboration among key stakeholders,” the institutions added. (Photo: Michael Gordon)