University Management
School for Graduate Studies and Research
The School for Graduate Studies and Research (SGSR) heightened activities to promote a One UWI approach throughout its various portfolios and to enhance research in The UWI. A key initiative was the launch of a Research Needs Assessment survey to identify research interests and areas for potential collaboration.
In addition to continued focus on interdisciplinary, cross-campus research, interdisciplinary cross-campus graduate programming was included as one of its strategic goals. The School also continued its main functions of providing oversight and direction to graduate education, as well as enhancing the capacity, quality and relevance of research across The UWI. Attention was directed to providing additional support and guidance to The UWI Centrefunded Research Institutes and Centres. Initiatives to further entrench entrepreneurship within The UWI were also undertaken during the period. Work continued through the Directors, Graduate Studies and Research on each campus to improve the overall graduate student experience at The UWI. In the face of the multifaceted, complex portfolio of the SGSR, the new Pro ViceChancellor, Graduate Studies and Research, Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, campaigned for additional support for the varied activities being undertaken by the School.
ACCESS
New and Revised Graduate Programmes
The Board for Graduate Studies and Research (BGSR) reviewed and approved fourteen new graduate programmes. Nineteen graduate programmes revised in content, assessment and delivery modes were also considered and approved. Of special note was the approval of a UWI-PAHO Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma in Health Policy and Health Systems, which comprise previously existing UWI courses, a course adapted from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Virtual Campus of Public Health and new cutting-edge public health courses. Start-up funds were provided by PAHO to cover the cost of the development and launch of the programmes, as well as to facilitate staff development. A new joint programme offering was also approved – The UWI/University of Glasgow Master of Arts in Reparatory Justice – which consists of an amalgamation of new and existing courses from The UWI, University of Glasgow and Brown University.
Graduate Enrolment and Student Support
Graduate Enrolment
Enrolment in graduate programmes was 8,997, a decline of just over 2% when compared to the previous year; the Cave Hill Campus saw an 8% increase in enrolment, while there was a 12% decrease at the St. Augustine Campus. Research degree enrolment as a percentage of total enrolment increased slightly to 16%, with 43% of these registered as full-time students.
For the University as a whole, 27% of graduate students were registered as full-time, a slight decrease of 3% over last year. The Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities and Education continued to account for the majority of registrations across all campuses.
Graduate Scholarships
A total of BD$1,186,667 (a 6% increase over 2020/2021) was allocated to all the campuses for UWI Graduate Scholarships, which allowed for twenty-four three-year awards to full-time research students.
CCRIF Scholarships
Five scholarships, with a total value of US$49,500, were awarded to students registered in Master’s programmes at the Cave Hill, Mona and St. Augustine campuses.
One Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarship
(QECS) tenable at The UWI for citizens of low/middle income Commonwealth countries (valued at over US$15,800) was awarded to a candidate from Belize (MSc Development Statistics, St. Augustine Campus).
Lisa Gore-Seifart Scholarships
Sponsored by the Gore Foundation, four partial scholarships, valued at US$5,000, were awarded to Psychology students at the Mona Campus.
Dr. Pauline O. Lawrence/Dr. Carlton G. Davis Graduate Scholarships
Two scholarships, valued at US$3,750 each, were awarded to the students registered in the MSc Agricultural Entrepreneurship and the MSc Food and Agro Processing programmes at the Mona Campus.
The UWI/Leicester University International Summer School
Five students were supported to attend The UWI/ Leicester University International Summer School 2022.
The Summer School is an annual week-long intensive programme aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers from the Caribbean and the UK with an interest in global studies and a background in any discipline across the arts, humanities and social sciences, and delivered by academic staff from both participating institutions. This year’s Summer School, themed Cultures and Politics of Protest, was held at The UWI, Mona Campus in May 2022.
New Climate Justice Internship
Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine was sought out to partner with Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) to further their mutual work on the Climate Justice ESCAZU Agreement. A meeting was held in April 2022 with Ms. Monica Adame and Team Director of the Gender, Equality and Inclusion Program of PGA. An important output was that PGA offered to fund a new internship on climate justice for three graduate students, which the SGSR was pleased to accept.
Regulations, Policies and Procedures
A number of amendments to the Regulations for Graduate Certificates, Diplomas and Degrees (2018 Edited) were approved by the BGSR. These included an amendment to the GPA Regulations to change the band for the award of merit; amendment of the Graduate Plagiarism Regulations to introduce a maximum penalty of 25% for Level I offences; and the approval of Regulations for professional doctorates to address gaps identified.
The Board also revised and approved the Guidelines for Manuscript-Based Theses; approved the introduction of a Deposit/Licence Agreement governing electronic theses and dissertations; and developed and approved the introduction of a Supervision Agreement as a reminder of the existing guidelines already in place for the supervision process. A new Policy, BGSR Rules and Procedures for Inter-Disciplinary, Multi-Campus Programmes, was also introduced to guide the process to facilitate approval of interdisciplinary UWI-wide programmes and approved by the BGSR.
Capacity Development Courses, Workshops and Seminars
As part of its strategic initiative to build research capacity across the University, the School hosted three QDA Miner training sessions facilitated by Dr. Loraine Cook and Ms. Lamoine Samuels-Lee, both from the School of Education, Mona Campus. Promotion of the ProSuite Software continued, to include university-wide sensitisation of the tool through flyers, short videos, a webinar, presentations to faculty board meetings and the training of at least two persons from each faculty across the five campuses.
The SGSR also collaborated with the Mixed Methods Research International Association – Caribbean Chapter to assist in the hosting of a Mixed Methods Research Workshop entitled A Meta-Framework to Re-IMAGINE the Increase of Black Methodologists in Education Research: Integrative Mixed Methods Anti-racist Groundwork for Investigating and Nurturing Equity.
The School participated, and facilitated the participation of staff across the campuses, in two WIPO-sponsored initiatives towards research development and commercialisation – twoweek courses delivered online entitled Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Licensing for Caribbean Countries and Advanced Course on Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Licensing for the Caribbean. Select groups across the University were targeted – Office of Research, Innovation and Community at Cave Hill (RICCH), Mona Office for Research and Innovation (MORI), St. Augustine Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (STACIE), and selected active researchers from all the campuses.
Quality Assurance Reviews
The Quality Assurance Unit organised and coordinated several reviews during the academic year. These included reviews of research and taught graduate programmes in those disciplines/departments in which these programmes are offered; these are listed below.
- Cave Hill Campus: French, History, Preclinical Sciences
- Mona Campus: Basic Medical Sciences, Geography and Geology, Linguistics Section, Modern Languages and Literature (Romance Languages), Philosophy Section
- Open Campus: Early Childhood Development and Education, Psychology
- St. Augustine Campus: Clinical Section, Electrical and Computer Engineering, History, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics, Spanish Section
RESEARCH NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT
The SGSR conducted a Research Needs Assessment Survey designed to gather information about the current research interests, practices, and potential synergies of staff across The UWI. The results were analysed and will assist the School in identifying the resources, including funding, required to support the revision of The UWI’s research agenda. The project output includes a final report and spreadsheet detailing researchers and their specialisations.
UWI Graduate Research and Research and Publications Funds
The School continued to oversee the provision and use of postgraduate research and research and publications funds across the campuses. There were further reductions in the budgets from the University Centre – BDs$460,787 for postgraduate research, representing a 9% cut, and a 5% reduction for research and publications to BDs$203,286 (for the academic year 2020–2021, there were declines of 65% and 11%, respectively).
Grants Management and International Partnerships
Donor-funded Projects
Through strategic interventions in research funding by the School, efforts were continued in further advancing funding thrusts to support financing The UWI’s research agenda. Relationships with existing international donors were strengthened and a number of new donor agencies were engaged. The proposals and projects supported spanned a range of disciplines across The UWI. Thirteen funded projects were also collaboratively managed/overseen by the School during the reporting period. The SGSR further strengthened the research landscape by supporting specialised opportunities for its staff and students through Erasmus+ Mobility Grants which allowed exposure to new cutting-edge research technologies and upscale education offerings at European universities.
Research Proposals Developed and Submitted
The Office (at St. Augustine) worked with research staff across the campuses in identifying funding opportunities and preparing and submitting thirteen international research grant applications, valued at over US$12.2M, to several international donor agencies, including, inter alia, the National Institutes of Health (USA), the European Commission, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund, and the International Development Research Centre (Canada).
Mobility proposals developed and submitted through the European Union’s Flagship Education and Training Mobility Programme (Erasmus+)
Through directed interventions of the SGSR, research projects can twin with mobility projects allowing opportunities for researchers to strengthen their research abilities at European universities.
A cross-section of these partnerships with The UWI include inter alia: University of Valladolid, Spain; University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Masaryk University, Czech Republic; University of Sciences Po, France; and Riga Technical University, Latvia.
Research Projects Won
The School won six collaborative international research projects during the reporting period, valued at US$238,014, funded primarily through our repeat donor agencies, viz., United Kingdom Research and Innovation Fund, UK and National Institutes of Health, USA. These donor agencies continued to fund projects in spite of experiencing resource constraints and cutbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, validating their continued approval of the research deliverables and outcomes generated in our projects. The research, administration, and financial teams continued to demonstrate a highly admirable commitment to The UWI.
Management and Maintenance of Key Donor Grant Management Portals
Most of the key international donor agencies have implemented electronic proposal and project management systems, and The UWI must be registered in them to apply for funds. The Office maintains a number of these donor management portals for The UWI, and new donor sub-portals were created, particularly those for the National Institutes of Health, USA and the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The UWI Research Ethics Committee
The School continued to serve as the Secretariat for the University Research Ethics Committee, and maintained the subscription for The UWI’s participation in the CITI Program Training utilised by UWI researchers across all campuses prior to submission of research proposal applications to their respective Campus Research Ethics Committees for review and approval. Members of the Campus Research Ethics Committees must also take Ethics courses offered by the CITI Program. The SGSR also facilitated the establishment of the Five Islands Campus Research Ethics Committee.
Campus Research Ethics Committees
The SGSR (at Cave Hill) is the Secretariat of the Cave Hill Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) which also serves the Barbados Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). During the reporting period, the online application system was used for all reviews (14 applications).
ALIGNMENT
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator (CCSA) Investor Matching Initiative
The SGSR is facilitating the Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator (CCSA) Investor Matchmaking Initiative. The CCSA is a recently established non-profit organisation with the goal of catalysing and accelerating priority initiatives that can transform the Caribbean into a Climate-Smart Zone which delivers resilience, social development and broadbased economic growth for the region.
A key strategy of the CCSA is to pair innovators and entrepreneurs with motivated investors within and outside the region in order to accelerate the incubation process of climate-focused projects in the Caribbean. The CCSA is partnering with The UWI in this investor matchmaking initiative, which provides the opportunity to: secure greater project throughput for the CCSA towards the transformation of the Caribbean to a Climate Smart Zone; bring new financing to The UWI to facilitate the execution and commercialisation of innovative business ready climate projects; and offer attractive potential returns to CCSA’s investors.
h4>Entrepreneurial MeetingsThe UWI Innovation and Entrepreneurial Steering Committee met for an introductory meeting with Pro Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Studies and Research, Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, where three of the five Campus Chairs provided reports on their Campus’ I&E activities. A meeting of the Innovation and Entrepreneurial Campus and Faculty Chairs was also held; discussion items included progress reports, challenges, inputs for assessment and promotion and workload policy, upcoming innovation and entrepreneurship workshops, and reconstitution of the Open Campus’ I&E Committee.
Improving the Efficiency of UWI Intellectual Property (IP) Negotiations
The School, at its request, received from Professors Daniel Coore and Winston Moore a proposal detailing strategies for efficient UWI IP negotiations. The proposal, currently being reviewed by stakeholders, provided recommendations for: a clear workflow for the overall approval process; defined standard agreements that set out general expectations of terms for common categories of negotiating partner (e.g., spinoff, external start-up, established corporate entity); and defined thresholds within which a designated negotiator may agree to terms within each category of agreement without seeking further approval first.
Intellectual Property (IP) and Commercialisation
The School (at Cave Hill) continued its responsibility for the management of registered patents at The UWI, which includes monitoring progress towards commercialisation against the time limit identified in the UWI IP Management and Commercialisation Policy for The UWI’s continued payments of maintenance fees for the patents. The UWI Intellectual Property Policy Revision committee which the PVC chairs, and the School supports, along with the St. Augustine Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (STACIE). The revised policy was approved by BGSR and submitted to the University F&GPC.
AGILITY
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The School is the sponsor of the academic domain which captures the operations of the undergraduate, graduate, continuing and professional education, open and distance learning programmes and services. The discovery phase of the project, focused on understanding the University’s business operations through an intensive and systematic data gathering process, was completed.
