THE University of the West Indies (The UWI) has announced the appointment of Professor Derek A Chadee as the new pro vice-chancellor of the Board for Undergraduate Studies. Professor Chadee’s three-year appointment took effect on August 1, 2023.

As pro vice-chancellor, Professor Chadee will oversee the Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies (OBUS) which is charged with responsibility for policy, quality and regionalism in developing and coordinating policy initiatives to guide all aspects of undergraduate and sub-degree programming at The UWI and its regional and global affiliates. This includes articulating, implementing and managing The UWI’s academic quality assurance enhancement system; and the preservation of the regional mandate of The UWI in its undergraduate academic delivery.

Professor Chadee, a Fulbright scholar, joined the St Augustine Campus of The UWI in 1995 as an assistant lecturer. He was awarded tenure in 2002 and was promoted to professor of social psychology in 2013.

As coordinator of the psychology programme, he developed the BSc in Psychology Special, MSc in Applied Psychology and MPhil/PhD in Psychology programmes which he directed within the Faculty of Social Sciences. His high standards in research, publications, teaching, and research collaboration have been evident throughout his career. His robust research agenda has focussed on the psychology of fear of crime with a current research interest in general fear, antecedents of emotions, copycat behaviour, media influence on perception, and social psychological theories.

Professor Chadee has more than 70 published books, journal articles and book chapters. He has published in internationally respected peer-refereed journals, a few of which being the British Journal of Criminology; Crime Media and Culture; International Review of Victimology; Journal of Interpersonal Violence; Applied Social Psychology; Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology; Psychology of Popular Media Culture, among others. His latest books are Positive Psychology (Palgrave 2021) and Theories in Social Psychology (2nd edition Wiley-Blackwell, 2022). The last publication is a unique contribution to the literature since, in the last 50 years, there had been no book on the international market that focused explicitly on theories in social psychology prior to its initial publication.

His leadership style encourages participation and consultation in decision making. From very early in his career, he saw the importance of taking advantage of globalisation and has therefore maintained a productive international collaboration with international universities. He has facilitated relationships with outside stakeholders that led to the signing of a number of memoranda of understanding to the benefit of students and staff.

His firm belief that university advocacy is an essential tool to bring about change and guide ever-changing Caribbean societies is reflected in the results of his research with governmental agencies. That advocacy research has included crime victimisation and fear of crime; discrimination and stigmatisation: HIV/AIDS; effects of gambling in Trinidad and Tobago; and social norms and values in Trinidad and Tobago.

He currently serves on the Mediation Board of Trinidad and Tobago.