At a media conference hosted at The University of the West Indies (the UWI) Cave Hill campus on Thursday, Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles announced that the regional university had climbed the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings, following its debut last year.

Not only has the UWI retained its position as the number one-ranked university in the Latin America and Caribbean region, it moved from the top three per cent to the top two per cent. The scores for its global rankings show that it moved from the top five per cent to the top four per cent of ranked universities.

“This upward trajectory into the top four per cent of the world’s best universities reflects the extraordinary effort of the management team and the UWI family to honour the pledge within the strategic plan to be an excellent global university rooted in the Caribbean,” said Beckles.

He added: “It is the intention of the university to be located in the top three per cent of ranked universities by the end of the current strategic planning cycle in 2023.”

UWI is the only Caribbean university on the 2020 list, which features almost 1,400 universities across 92 countries.

“The university has experienced a considerable rise in self-confidence since participating in these global rankings,” the vice chancellor said. “The UWI has an excellent executive management team, and is focused on sustaining its reputation revolution while demonstrating daily proof of greater efficiency and public accountability.”

UWI’s project team is lead by Pro Vice Chancellor Densil Williams.

Describing the ranking process, Williams made the comparison that for the 2019 World University Rankings, there were 1,258 universities on the list, (The UWI placed at 591), while for the 2020 World University Rankings 1,397 universities made the list (the UWI came in at 571).

“The UWI has moved significantly up the trajectory,” he said.

He further noted that the UWI has seen significant movement in all THE’s criteria of teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook. Importantly, the regional university, which is much smaller and less-resourced than many of its competitors on the list, received very high scores for ‘citations’ and ‘international outlook’ — placing it among the top 75 percentile of universities across the globe in those criteria.

“I am very confident,” he stated, “that going forward the UWI will see better days. And given what we now know about our global university and the quality of work that we have been doing, I expect us to continue to rise in the near future.”