Scores of students flock UTech Open House
MONTEGO BAY, St James – The recently held University of Technology (UTech) Open House was a jam-packed affair as prospective students from institutions all over western Jamaica descended on the Montego Bay Cultural Centre to see what the university had to offer.
Coordinator of UTech Western Campus, Sophia McIntosh, welcomed the students giving them academic as well as professional advice.
McIntosh, who has been at the helm of the UTech Western Campus since January of this year, noted that UTech, while a pillar in academics, also places heavy emphasis on community involvement.
“UTech Jamaica has three pillars that we focus on. They are teaching, research and community, and we as a national university have been trying our best to go out in the community, speak to the community to find out what are their needs and find out how best the university can help,” McIntosh explained.
With respect to programmes of study at UTech, McIntosh noted that the nursing and business programmes continue to be the cornerstones of the institution’s Western Campus.
“However, plans are afoot to introduce the Diploma in Construction Management, Associate Degree in Land Surveying, a Bachelor of Science in Computing, and Bachelor of Science in Hospitality and Tourism Management in January of next year,” she added.
However, McIntosh noted that there is still the longstanding issue of students having difficulties paying tuition fees, adding that UTech has measures in place to ease the burden on students.
“The aim is to take the university to the people, and try to help them to find solutions, try to help them so that a university education can be more accessible. One of the impediments to that accessibility is that some students do not have the funds, they cannot afford the tuition, but what we try to do is to provide grants and scholarships for the students. We also have a welfare programme, where we provide for students who cannot afford lunch money, taxi fare … we try to make provision for those students. We have also partnered with MoBay City Run to provide scholarships for our students,” McIntosh explained.
