State Minister Calls For Greater Collaboration Between UWI And UTech

State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Robert Morgan, is calling for greater collaboration between the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University of Technology (UTech), to enhance technological advancement in Jamaica.

“Both universities are predominantly funded by taxpayers, even though they function under different regimes and legislation. The money comes from the same pot. It makes no sense in 2021 to have two universities competing against each other, who are less than a mile apart and are funded by the same taxpayers,” he said.

Mr. Morgan was speaking at a grant handover ceremony for $23 million awarded for three Postgraduate Research projects to be carried out on Technology.

The ceremony was held on December 14, at the UWI, Mona Campus.

The State Minister argued that there is “space” within the conversation for more joint efforts between the two universities, to help Jamaica become the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the Caribbean.

“I believe that the only way that we’re going to develop our society in a way that we all wish it to be developed, and the only way that we’re going to be able to leapfrog, because you’re not going to be able to crawl to success, you have to jump over hurdles, is for a tremendous collaboration, cooperation and a unified focus on singular objectives,” he said.

Meanwhile, Principal of the UWI, Mona, Professor Dale Webber, said the UWI is in strong support of partnerships with all tertiary institutions.

“We do not see ourselves a light on a hill all alone, but we see ourselves partnering and we can’t take all students alone. We must partner, not just because we want to reach more students, but because we want to share what we have and share in what others have,” he said.

Professor Webber pointed out that there is “no difficulty making that partnership work in areas such as science and technology and engineering, where both institutions have strengths.”

He said that the University intends to hold a science and technology conference in 2022, where all campuses of the UWI, its partners and universities across the island will collaborate.

The research projects, which were selected from a list of proposals submitted to the Universal Service Fund (USF) for funding, are intended to contribute to ICT development and innovation in Jamaica.

They are: ‘Jumpstart’, being spearheaded by researcher, Dr. Paul Gaynor, which is expected to provide a technological interface with automated reading; ‘Moving Eye’, spearheaded by Dr. Andre Coy, which will provide an enhanced video monitoring alert system; while Dr. Louis-Ray Harris is leading the development of the ‘Smart City Concept’, which will support the USF goal in assisting the digital transformation of Jamaica.