Dr. Brown has just announced:
“The Bermuda Government has embarked on a journey to become a financial contributor to the University of the West Indies which would give all Bermudians the opportunity to attend the school at deeply discounted tuition rates.”
I am deeply skeptical about this linkage. It’s more ideology than about educational opportunity, reflecting the Premier’s desire to create more ties with the Caribbean and CARICOM.
He is proposing that Bermuda become a “contributing country” to UWI, helping to cover the overhead of the institution’s three campuses in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad … and in return our students get to pay less to attend the school.
I believe that it would make far more sense to simply boost the scholarship funds available to Bermudian students by the same sum. That way our students could choose schools that are most applicable to their needs and interests, thereby increasing the diversity of experience for our young people and increasing accountability.
I am not putting down UWI in any way, but believe that students and their parents make better decisions on educational investment than Government. Major shifts like this shouldn’t come out of the blue, driven entirely by the Cabinet Office: we need more analysis on how decisions like this fit in with our community’s needs as well as our existing local education investments.
(Imagine the impact that similar investment might have on the Bermuda College? Think this may be why Larry Mussenden quit?)
(Whappenings provides a different perspective.)