The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC), prompted by the the increased adaptation to remote learning, has plans to expand its delivery of certifications outside the borders of Jamaica.

According to UCC President Dr Haldane Davies, the tertiary institution will seek to tap a 40-million-strong market that includes sovereign countries and overseas territories in the Caribbean basin. As part of this expansion plan, the university will be transmitting its lectures and classes in foreign languages.

“The aim is to transmit our courses in Spanish and Portuguese. If we look on countries in the Caribbean rim, we can interact with students who prefer an online modality,” Dr Davies told the Jamaica Observer in an interview.

Complementing its English language course delivery with Spanish and Portuguese will allow UCC to extend its reach beyond the island nations in the Caribbean Sea and into the mainland jurisdictions Central and South America. Additionally, Dr Davies pointed out that the university is also looking to engage a large Caribbean Diaspora in Europe.

“When we look at our partners in the European Union, there are about 15 million people of Afro-Caribbean descent…Some are in Spain and Portugal,” the UCC president outlined.

When asked about delivery in French, given Jamaica’s proximity to Haiti and other French overseas departments in the region, Davies said transmission in that language is “next in line”.

According to UCC’s website, the tertiary institution’s expansion plan is in response to “unmet demand for quality education”.

“Not only are there a small number of internationally renowned higher education institutions, but most do not offer modern scientific courses or actively engage in research. This dynamic is reflected in the remarkably low enrolment rates across the region. Reports published by UNESCO show that only around one-third of the young adult population (aged 18 to 24) in the Caribbean and Latin America was enrolled in higher education, while this figure is twice as high in more developed countries,” it continues.

Moreover, the university argues that low enrolment into tertiary programmes in the Caribbean and brain drain — resulting from migration of tertiary graduates — have resulted in detrimental effects on both the labour force and economic growth.

Given these challenges, Dr Davies said that the expansion of the university’s reach is “strategically positioning us to meet the needs of the Caribbean people…then to target people in the Caribbean Diaspora”.

Without giving much details, the UCC president said the school has inked a deal in another Caribbean country to establish a campus and that the institution is now in discussions with the Government in that country.

Headquartered at its flagship Worthington campus in St Andrew, UCC operates campuses in May Pen, Clarendon; Mandeville, Manchester; Ocho Rios, St Ann; and Monetgo Bay, St James, offering qualifications from certificates to the postgraduate level.

UCC will offer its online courses in both synchronous and asynchronous modalities. Synchronous means that the lectures and classes are real time, while asynchronous means students can access learning material at their own pace and are given a specific time within which to complete assignments.

With the university having partnerships with both international universities and certification bodies, Davies said that UCC’s certifications are recognised globally. What’s more, he pointed to how “competitively priced” the courses are in comparison to those offered by North American and European tertiary institutions.

He said that UCC is also banking on a partnership with a renowned university in Ghana to expand its footprint into Africa.

“We are seeing opportunities to expand into other countries,” Dr Davies told Caribbean Business Report, adding that the current approach is to partner with domiciled universities in those countries to secure a foothold.