New External Providers of Tertiary Education in the Caribbean E.P. Brandon Prepared for the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) July, 2003 Summary and Recommendations on New External Providers of Tertiary Education in the Caribbean The past decade has seen a remarkable proliferation of tertiary educational provision in the English-speaking Caribbean. From a situation when within the region the University of the West Indies was the only degree-granting institution, with various national colleges offering lower- level qualifications, we now find a situation in which not only have various national institutions moved to the offering of Bachelor’s degrees but there also a number of other players: private local institutions, offshore operations that are diversifying into a more comprehensive role, and many foreign universities offering programmes at locations in the region, often in collaboration with national institutions. Another important development has been the number of local institutions that offer tuition in support of external or distance education programmes from external sources (almost all from the UK). The largest group of such external programmes focus on business (most at the MBA/EMBA level) but there also a considerable number of programmes in Information Technology and Education. The University of London currently teaches Law to more people than the regional University. The other main discipline represented among the new providers is pre-clinical medicine, but for the most part this is currently aimed at an international and not a local market. Data on enrolments in or graduation from such new programmes are not generally available, but indications are that they are roughly of the same order of magnitude as for the UWI and for regional student migration to metropolitan countries. The great majority of such programmes are aimed at mature students currently working — not the typical clientele of the national colleges. While the regional University has been formally engaged in distance education for over twenty years, it has been decisively overtaken by the new competitors, most of whom are relying to a considerable extent on distance education packages and the Internet for the delivery of their courses. This comparatively extensive expansion of tertiary education has not been accompanied by much concern for monitoring or the assurance of standards. In Jamaica, and to some extent Trinidad and Tobago, there is an accreditation mechanism; the University and some other institutions have their own internal quality assurance mechanisms. But no reports are made public and in Jamaica it is not required that external programmes be accredited. Proposals for a regional accreditation mechanism have got bogged down, except for what appears to be some urgency to replace the earlier UK accreditation of medical education. From the point of view of the public, it is difficult to separate policies for external providers from the wider set of questions about the provision of tertiary education. There is obviously a great unfulfilled demand for post-secondary education and training and there are several factors that contribute to it. One is the quality of secondary schooling, which too often leaves people without the entry qualifications required for normal progress into tertiary education. Another is a matter of geography and the distribution of post-secondary facilities. In such circumstances, people benefit from a wider range of options and from institutions that are prepared to offer “access” courses or to take less qualified students. Here governments might on the one hand encourage their national institutions to look more widely, and encourage liaison 2 with the sort of work some branches of the UWI’s School of Continuing Studies have been doing. On the other, they should consider regulatory and facilitating mechanisms to encourage certain sorts of private participation, both local and foreign, in tertiary and continuing education. In this connection, a more decisive stance with respect to GATS, now or in the future, might be of some value, provided it is informed by the results of genuine consultation with the widest relevant publics. Such public deliberation on the whole issue of tertiary education policy across the region is therefore a further recommendation one should make. While demand is great, the public also deserves assurance that it is getting value for its money, either paid directly or in taxes that maintain national institutions. The region therefore needs a comprehensive and public quality assurance system for the whole range of tertiary education, not just for medicine. Such a system should require all providers to be reviewed. In effect, public judgements of the quality of provision would serve, as they do in the UK, a similar function as accreditation — though one might want to preserve a distinction between institutional accreditation and more nuanced judgements of the quality of provision in different academic areas. The region benefits from “off-shore” education, but it should be concerned that that education also meets internationally acceptable standards — everyone is affected if the region is better known for degree mills and money laundering than for education and legitimate finance. But even if such a system were created, it would not be able to do much about distance education that is not organised on the ground locally. Here it would seem that an international regime is required, whereby Internet and other distance education providers can be assessed once and for all for the whole world, either by the quality assurance body in their home territory or by an independent international agency. One concomitant benefit of an effective regional quality assurance and accreditation agency would be the central public (i.e. Internet) availability of data on the actual operations of the various players in the tertiary education market. If all players are required to register annually they can be required to submit whatever data is deemed desirable for monitoring and for responsible planning of tertiary educational provision. Acknowledgements As will become obvious from the references, this report could not have been compiled without the help of Google and the many anonymous webmasters whose work it has collated. For other help with gathering data, the author wishes to thank: Ramesh Chaitoo, Anne Downes, Mark Figueroa, Gale Hall, Win Harewood, Cicely Jacobs, Gavin Jones, 3 Lorinda Palmer, Hilary Perraton, Phyllis Pitt-Mitter, Arthusa Semei, Reanti Singh, Michael Thomas, and June Wheatley; for constructive comments and criticism: Lawrence Carrington. 4 Contents 1 - Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6 Background to this report........................................................................................... 6 Background to the issue of tertiary education provision ........................................... 7 Specification of terms ................................................................................................ 8 2 - Identification and quantification of external higher education providers.................. 9 2.1 Foreign universities................................................................................................... 9 2.2 International technological academies.................................................................... 10 2.3 Twinning partners or university alliances............................................................... 10 2.4 Corporate universities ............................................................................................. 20 2.5 For-profit providers................................................................................................. 21 2.6 Virtual universities.................................................................................................. 29 2.7 Open and distance universities................................................................................ 31 2.8 Others...................................................................................................................... 34 3 - Status of new providers and relationships and interaction with public and private education-business ............................................................................................................ 38 4 - Impact on student enrolment at the national level ................................................... 42 5 - Subjects focused on by new providers .................................................................... 48 6 - Quality certification awarded by new providers and quality assurance and accreditation system offered by the new providers........................................................... 52 7 - Coverage of transnational education services by existing local accreditation/quality systems.............................................................................................................................. 59 8 - Comparative price analysis of services offered by new providers .......................... 60 9 - Information sources ................................................................................................ 64 10 - Perspectives of new providers and impact on quality, price, coverage and certification … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … .. 44 11 - Role of ICT in activities of new providers ............................................................ 68 12 - Discussion of role of trade in education services and local agenda for negotiations for GATS .......................................................................................................................... 70 13 – Recommendations................................................................................................. 72 Appendix: List of abbreviations … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … 50 5 1 - Introduction Background to this report This study is designed to focus attention on the recent diversification of tertiary education provision in the Anglophone Caribbean, paying particular attention to the role of “external providers”. Main areas for consideration are the identification of such providers, the impact this provision has had on student enrolment at the national level, and the level of quality assurance associated with the new providers. Recommendations will be made as to how they might be harnessed to provide the greatest benefits to the region. In the context of IESALC deliberations, this study arose out of consideration of a comprehensive report on tertiary education in the Caribbean, prepared by Dr G. Howe, Contending with Change: Reviewing Tertiary Education in the English-speaking Caribbean, which was tabled at an IESALC meeting in the Bahamas, Oct 31- Nov. 1, 2002. That report had incorporated findings from the same author’s earlier study Foreign Tertiary Education Providers Functioning in the Anglophone Caribbean, prepared for the UWI Office of the Board for Non-Campus Countries and Distance Education in January 2001. These documents brought home to their readers the fact that the tertiary education landscape in the Anglophone Caribbean has changed almost out of recognition from the time when the University of the West Indies (and the University of Guyana in Guyana) monopolised the field, condescending occasionally to note the presence of community colleges or teachers’ colleges in the various countries. But that picture had remained alive in much thinking — its reflexes can be seen in the continuing CARICOM commitment to one regional university, without however any specification of what regionality might mean (affirmed at the Heads of Government meeting at Grand Anse, 1989,1 and once more at Montego Bay, 19972), and also in the metaphor of “hub and 1 http://www.caricom.org/archives/grandanse.htm. 6 spokes” that epitomised the UWI’s strategic thinking during Vice-Chancellor’s McIntyre’s tenure. It is hoped that this Report may facilitate a more accurate understanding of the tertiary education scene. Background to the issue of tertiary education provision Educational thought in the Caribbean has often noted that its traditions lay in the United Kingdom while the most powerful influences on its present direction come from North America. One aspect of this tension is worth noting in the present context: traditionally UK tertiary education has been a public commitment, offered with little overt concern for maximising returns, but offered to a small proportion of the population. While there has been a tremendous change in this last feature in the UK, tertiary education there remains predominantly a public expenditure (Buckingham remains the only private university in the UK), although economic stringency has made universities much more entrepreneurial than in former times (in search of full-fee foreign students, etc.). On the other hand, the tertiary educational environment in the Americas, North and South, is one where private enterprise is much more visible, as also private philanthropy in the US. Where once students in the UK could expect to study any subject on pretty much the same terms and with the same support from taxpayers, the costs of higher education fall very differently on students in the US. The most able, academically or athletically, or those targeted by federal or state legislation can in effect be paid to study; others must find the money themselves. This ethos is shared across the public/private divide. The Caribbean’s uncomfortable position between these diverse traditions can be seen in the struggles to implement partial fees for UWI students and the self-defeating compromises that have been reached with respect to government funding (by estimating costs on a faculty basis, for instance, students in science and agriculture are faced with much higher fees at a time when the official aim of the UWI is to increase enrolment in those fields). The basic point, however, is to note that thinking in the region remains bound up with the idea of 2 http://www.caricom.org/archives/montegobaydecl.htm. By 1997, however, the Heads of Government had also noticed their own institutions: “We also recognise the contributions of tertiary institutions of our Member States.” 7 public provision and has not fully come to terms with those who see education as one business among many. Specification of terms For the purposes of this study, and purely for convenience, the Anglophone Caribbean is taken to be those countries served by the UWI (Anguilla; Antigua; the Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; the British Virgin Islands; the Cayman Islands; Dominica; Grenada; Jamaica; Montserrat; St Kitts and Nevis; St Lucia; St Vincent; Trinidad and Tobago; the Turks and Caicos Islands). Where data have been found for Guyana or semi-Anglophone countries such as the Dutch islands and Suriname, they will be mentioned, but no efforts have been made to seek such material. In this study the notion of an “external” provider is not restricted to providers originating from outside the region, but rather to those who are not among the “traditional” state- sponsored tertiary sector. It is of little moment whether X is based in St Lucia or in Florida if X is recruiting and operating in St Lucia in competition with the national tertiary institution and with the UWI. The issue is of importance in some contexts (accessibility to local regulators, impact on the national economy, etc.) but not in terms of long-term planning by the traditional education sector and the ministries that have responsibilities for its sustenance. In listing institutions, local partners are written in italics, external institutions in boldface. 8 2 - Identification and quantification of external higher education providers External higher education providers will be categorised below in the terms offered by IESALC. It should be noted, however, that these categories are not exclusive, so some items might well have been placed in more than one category. 2.1 Foreign universities This heading is understood to include those cases where foreign institutions have come to a Caribbean country to teach their own programmes, without formal assistance from local educational institutions. So far, no foreign institution has acquired land and built its own campus in the way Monash, for instance, has opened a campus in Malaysia, though in conversation some people have suggested that something like this might soon happen, at least if there is an upturn in local economies. But there are some cases of programmes being offered through less permanent means, notably in Jamaica. And there is one case in the Bahamas where a foreign institution started with an extension programme that has developed into the offering of regular degrees. (There are also cases where foreign- owned “off-shore” providers have bought land and built extensively, notably St George’s University in Grenada. These will be given in section 2.5.) The Bahamian example, the Benedictine University College, is in fact part of the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University (CSB/SJU), in Minnesota. A recent accreditation self-study by CSB/SJU reports that To date, we have over 40 part-time faculty members on the roster. The majority are Bahamian citizens who are engaged full time in their own professional endeavors: lawyers, managers/directors from different Ministries of the Government, accountants, teachers, managers, parish priests, psychologists. Several lecturers have been with the program for well over a decade. All lecturers in the college courses have a master's degree in the discipline in which they teach and approximately 30 percent have earned a doctoral degree. 9 During the summers, the program has capitalized on the interest and availability of faculty members from Minnesota to expand the course offerings and engage in curriculum and faculty development. Workshops for symposium and in-service sessions in education have been held through the years in Nassau. A number of lecturers from Nassau have also attended symposium workshops at CSB/SJU.3 Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA has had a programme in Jamaica for about 20 years, now offering a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a BSc in Professional Management, and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management (MSc/HRM). The University of New Orleans (UNO) offers an Executive MBA through its Jamaica Programme. [Another programme is worth noting here although it is no longer operating: Barry University started an EMBA programme in Jamaica in 1991. Barry reckons it has 250 alumni from Jamaica, many of whom would be graduates of the local operation.] 2.2 International technological academies No institutions are in this category, but see under “corporate universities” below (2.4). 2.3 Twinning partners or university alliances This heading is taken to cover the many cases in which a foreign provider offers their programmes through a local tertiary or analogous institution. In some cases, the local institution provides only space and logistical support; in others, its staff may assist in course delivery; and in some cases there may be moves towards greater sharing, by 3 See http://www.csbsju.edu/assessment/Accreditation/SJU/0056.htm. 10 localising course content to some extent, for instance. A few other cases in which a local institution is indebted to a foreign provider or has negotiated easier access for its students to such a foreign provider are also included here, but there are many such agreements so this list does not aspire to completeness with respect to this kind of articulation.4 Note that since this section is restricted to partnerships with local institutions, there are other partnership arrangements to be noted when we deal with external providers located in the Caribbean. Bahamas: The College of the Bahamas facilitates the offering of two graduate programmes. A Master’s degree in Special Education is offered in conjunction with the University of Miami (Florida, USA); and a Masters degree in Counselling in collaboration with Kent State University (Ohio, USA).5 The University of Miami School of Business has also been offering an EMBA in the Bahamas since 1976, using its own staff members. It claims over 400 graduates by 2000. Atlantic College and Theological Seminary in Nassau (enrolment approximately 275 in 2001) partnered in August 2001 with the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) “to develop courses so that students can earn degrees in mathematics, elementary education and political science/public administration.”6 FAMU’s College of Education, Division of Continuing Education and the College of Arts and Sciences, is sponsoring the programme at Atlantic College. Atlantic College also hopes to add business and health courses to its curriculum in the near future. Plans are in the works to include a student and faculty exchange and distance learning component to the FAMU programme. Atlantic College began as a theological college but since 1998 has added several liberal arts courses and is now offering Associate 4 For a recent attempt to capture articulation arrangements, see Table 18 of Vivienne Roberts and Nigel Brissett, Pathways to Tertiary Education in the English-speaking Caribbean, TLIU, 2003. For 17 institutions it records 50 such arrangements with extra-regional providers. 5 See http://www.cob.edu.bs/academics/index.html 6 See http://www.famu.edu/about/admin/vppa/News/Black_Issues/Atlantic_College/atlantic_college.html. 11 Degrees in Business Administration, Human Services, and Criminal Justice, together with Bachelors in Bible, Ministry, Theology, Counselling, and Christian Education. Barbados: Carnegie Mellon University has licensed its Software Development Systems Program at basic skill level to Barbados Community College. A very recent development has seen Ernst & Young Caribbean collaborating with the Durham Business School, University of Durham to offer an MBA from September 2003, using face-to-face and distance education modalities. The University of Durham has a history of collaboration with Codrington College dating back to 1875. Its degrees were taught by Codrington before that College became affiliated to UWI. The earlier affiliation relationship still exists. The Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (BIMAP) is collaborating with the Surrey European Management School (SEMS), University of Surrey, to offer five post-graduate programmes: MBA, and MSc in Human Resource Management, Financial Services Management, Marketing Management, and International Business Management. BIMAP also works with the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (UK). The Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic has had a link with the University of Wisconsin for the delivery of its Occupational Health Safety programme. Belize: Belize has a special arrangement, the Consortium for Belize Educational Co-operation (COBEC), to promote co-operative ventures to address educational needs in Belize. Since 1992 COBEC has been incorporated as a 501 (3) non-profit corporation. One recently joined member, Georgia College and State University, reports that a Master of 12 Arts in Teaching cohort for Belizean educators was being organized at GC&SU in collaboration with the Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize, to begin August 2002. As of 2001, the members of COBEC were: ? ? Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize ? ? Colorado State University ? ? Corozal Junior College ? ? East Carolina University ? ? Fort Valley State University ? ? Georgia College and State University ? ? Hillsborough Community College ? ? Kennesaw State University ? ? Metropolitan Community College ? ? Muffles Junior College ? ? Murray State University ? ? New Mexico State University ? ? Oklahoma State University ? ? Sacred Heart Junior College ? ? San Pedro Junior College ? ? School for International Training ? ? St. John's College Junior College ? ? Stann Creek Ecumenical Junior College ? ? State University of New York, Cortland ? ? University of Belize ? ? University of Hawaii at Hilo ? ? University of North Florida ? ? University of South Florida ? ? University of Vermont ? ? Valdosta State University ? ? Viterbo University ? ? Western Kentucky University 13 The Belize Primary Education Development Project has involved the Belize Teachers’ Training College working with distance education material from the University of Bristol.7 British Virgin Islands: The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) has a number of link arrangements:8 ? ? There has been an MBA programme from Wright State University (Dayton, Ohio).9 According to Wright State, the second cohort (1999-2001) contained 16 students. Transfer of credits has been agreed, and both institutions are collaborating on the delivery of a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management. ? ? A new development sees the New England Culinary Institute, Vermont, offering an Associate Degree in Occupational Studies in Culinary Arts.10 ? ? Since 1992 there has been collaboration with Hocking College, Ohio, in various areas, most importantly in delivery of a nursing programme. ? ? There is collaboration in a number of areas with the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) – credit transfer arrangements are in place; UVI is in the process of delivering the final two years of the Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education at HLSCC; and both institutions are also collaborating in the delivery of a Masters Degree in Educational Administration. ? ? HLSCC is working with Arkansas Tech University of Russellville, Arkansas, on the development of a Certificate of Achievement, Associate Degree, and Bachelor degree in the area of Disaster Management. 7 A brief report is at http://www.id21.org/education/E2mc1g1.html. 8 Most of the information here has been taken from http://www.hlscc.edu.vg/Affiliated_Institutes/affiliated%20_institutes.html. 9 See http://www.wright.edu/business/docp/bvi/. 10 See http://www.necibvi.com/. 14 ? ? The HLSCC and Educational Videoconferencing Inc., of Yonkers, New York has signed an agreement for HLSCC to serve as a hub for the delivery of educational and professional development programmes in financial resources, e- commerce, and information technology among others, to the Caribbean region by real time distance education technology. It will also give Caribbean students immediate access to programmes at institutions including The College of Insurance, Adelphi University, Mercy College, Manhattan College, St. John’s University, and Clemson University. ? ? Academic credits from HLSCC are currently transferable to Missouri Southern State College (MSSC) of Joplin, Missouri. In addition, MSSC and HLSCC are collaborating on the development of Bachelor degree completion programmes in Business Management, Computer Science, and Elementary Education. They are also discussing the possibility of offering a programme in Police Science. ? ? In 1997, the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College entered into an articulation agreement with Saint Augustine’s College of Raleigh, North Carolina. The articulation agreement set up a two plus two programme (Bachelor Degree completion programme) that assures the transferability of Associate Degree graduates of HLSCC as third-year students to Saint Augustine’s College where they fulfil the Bachelor degree requirements with sixty (60) additional credits. ? ? The HLSCC and the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) have signed an affiliation agreement with respect to the upgrading of nurses from the Associate Degree and hospital based certificate programmes to the Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing. The programme is jointly taught by UB and HLSCC. Cayman Islands: The University of Liverpool offers its law degree through the Cayman Islands Law School (minimal information is available at http://www.liv.ac.uk/law/cils/cils.htm). The International College of the Cayman Islands claims to have links with US institutions but it has not been possible to identify them. 15 Jamaica: Central Connecticut State University has partnered with Sam Sharpe Teachers' College and conducted staff development there. This has included scholarships for staff to take postgraduate qualifications at Central Connecticut State University. The Institute of Management Sciences facilitates two business programmes from Florida International University, a BBA and an EMBA. Enrolments for the EMBA are given as: 2001 – 73; 2002 – 40; 2003 – 51; and 2004 – 48.11 A distance education MBA for Financial Specialists12 is facilitated by the Jamaica Institute of Bankers, for candidates in Jamaica, the Bahamas and elsewhere. It comes from the Institute for Financial Management (IFM), which is itself jointly owned by the Manchester Business School and the University of Wales at Bangor. Mount St. Vincent University (MSVU) in Nova Scotia, Canada, is training primary school principals, under the Post-Graduate Principals’ Diploma Programme. The overseas component of the programme saw 50 principals going to Mount St. Vincent in the first year, followed by an additional 50 in the next year. In addition, three batches of 235 principals are to be trained locally. The local segment of the programme is carried out primarily at St. Joseph’s, Sam Sharpe and Bethlehem Teachers’ Colleges. The programme is funded by the Government of Jamaica and the Inter-American Development Bank. MSVU had already signed agreements with the College of Agriculture, Science and Education and St. Joseph’s, to begin developing a BEd degree.13 Since 1996, the Fischler Graduate School of Education of Nova Southeastern University (NSU) has been offering a Doctorate in Education programme in collaboration with Mico Teachers' College. Since February 2001, NSU has been offering 11 Data from http://cba.fiu.edu/programs/jamaica/forums/directory/directory1.cfm. 12 See http://www.jiob.org.jm/programmes.htm 13 See http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/jamaica/kng_education_jan2003-fr.asp. 16 a Masters Degree in Education in collaboration with the Jamaica Teachers Association. There are two cohorts of students, one in Montego Bay and the other in Kingston.14 Temple University, through its College of Education, has begun a 39-credit bachelor’s degree programme to extend the previous certificate in education programme offered by Church Teachers’ College in Mandeville.15 The University of South Florida (USF) in collaboration with Shortwood Teachers' College has been offering a 37 credit hour Master of Arts Degree in Early Childhood Education since June 2000. The entire programme (courses and practicum) is offered on- site in Jamaica. Twelve courses are taught over six semesters, including summer sessions. 23 students were in the first batch of graduates. The University of Technology is working on the only known link with institutions in Cuba: second and fourth year Chemical Engineering students will be learning the technology in Spanish at the University of Havana. 14 See http://www.jamaicateachers.org.jm/news/2001/114.asp. 15 See http://www.temple.edu/temple_times/1-20-00/jamaica.html. 17 Trinidad: Caribbean Union College, CUC, (http://www.cuc.edu.tt/cuc/index.html) is affiliated with Andrews University, Michigan. Its students can take courses for an Andrews degree. The National Energy Skills Centre, part of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Technology, claims affiliation with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Earlier it had also been involved with Drexel University. ROYTEC offers several programmes with overseas links. It teaches two degrees in collaboration with the University of New Brunswick, a BBA and a BEd. It gives these details of the former degree: “In association with the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Canada, RBTT ROYTEC offers a structured Associate of Science Degree in Management programme leading to the UNB Bachelor of Business Administration. The BBA Degree is offered on a part-time and full-time basis and consists of forty-one (41) courses with a total of one hundred and twenty-nine credit hours. Overall, the part-time programme is completed over a period of four (4) years and the full-time programme over three (3) years. The first twenty-one courses are delivered by RBTT ROYTEC under UNB supervision. The second half of the programme is managed by UNB with RBTT ROYTEC administration. Courses are delivered by a mixed faculty of local lecturers and University of New Brunswick professors. Students have the option of completing these courses in Trinidad or New Brunswick, Canada.”16 The BEd degree, on the other hand, is almost entirely a UNB affair: “The programme will be delivered in Trinidad and Tobago on the World Wide Web. The pedagogical component, five required block programmes, will be introduced in intensive workshops of a minimum of thirty hours on site. Each of these workshops will be conducted by the content experts from UNB who developed the programmes. The intensive workshops will offer the opportunity for degree candidates to meet their professors.” 16 Condensed from pages at http://www.roytec.com/. 18 ROYTEC currently lists affiliations with Monroe College, whose BBA in Information Systems is articulated with ROYTEC’s AS Degree in Information Systems Management, the American Management Association with which it offers a Certificate in Management, and the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors with which it conducts programmes leading to the designations Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Financial Consultant. Its historical sketch records that its first entry into serious tertiary education in 1992 was through offering the Diploma in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University. Turks and Caicos: The Turks and Caicos Community College is working with several other institutions, e.g. Wilberforce in Ohio (articulation for Business degrees), and the University of Sheffield (for all levels of qualification in Education). 19 2.4 Corporate universities If a “corporate university” is taken to be an in-house training arm of a private business entity that offers degrees to its employees, we do not yet have any in the English- speaking region. But we do have entities that are getting close. Banks, insurance companies, and telecommunications providers are among those that engage in a considerable amount of training. In most cases this training is still purely “in-house” and largely free of formal connections with the rest of tertiary education, although it might be an obvious point for public/private collaboration (e.g. the Cable and Wireless College in Castries, St Lucia, when it was still in existence). The UWI’s Faculty of Social Sciences at Mona is already collaborating with the Jamaica Constabulary Staff College in the delivery of one Certificate programme (Public Administration – Special). ROYTEC in Trinidad is an example of a training programme, originally in-house, that has expanded considerably (enrolment now 450) and now accepts students with no connections to the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.17 While in Trinidad, it might be pertinent to note that it is claimed that the public-private partnership designated the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Technology “operates along the lines of a Corporate University — driven by industry needs, utilizing industry-experienced faculty, emphasizing hands-on learning based on industry relevant curricula and employing flexible program scheduling.”18 The Institute of Management & Production in Jamaica is also an outgrowth of in-house training in the ICD Group of companies. Cable and Wireless has now started a “virtual academy”, based in the UK, and so far offering Masters programmes. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed (Feb. 19th, 2002) between the Government of St Lucia and Cable & Wireless Virtual Academy for access to such online programmes in areas such as Law, Management, Engineering, Telecommunications Law and Electronic Commerce.19 17 A brief history is available at http://www.roytec.com/. 18 At http://www.southchamber.org/programmes/nesc.asp. 19 See http://www.stlucia.gov.lc/pr2002/new_opportunities_for_tertiary_education.htm. 20 2.5 For-profit providers (a) Off-shore Medical Schools This list is broken down by country. Institutions will be listed in alphabetical order, followed by any relevant data concerning them. Antigua: University of Health Sciences Antigua – see under Virtual Universities (2.6). Belize: Central America Health Sciences University (CAHSU) - (http://www.cahsu.edu/) Grace University School of Medicine (previously in Nevis) – (http://www.grace- usom.org/) Medical University of the Americas (MUA, also in Nevis) – (http://www.muabelize.com/) St Luke’s University School of Medicine - (http://www.stluke.edu.bz/) [Until 2002, St Matthew’s University School of Medicine, now transferred to Cayman. See footnote 20 for claims about residual operations in Belize.] CAHSU, also known as the Belize Medical College, was founded in 1996 and is based in Belize City. It now has links with The School of Health Management (SHM), a part of the A.T. Still University of Health Sciences, Kirksville, Missouri. As the "online" graduate School of the University, SHM currently offers online graduate certificates and degrees in public health, health administration and geriatric health management to current students and graduates of CAHSU. Grace University School of Medicine had been based in Nevis since 1983/4. In 2000 it was “chartered” by the Government of Belize, and is now situated in Belmopan. It also has a link with the SHM. 21 The Medical University of the Americas remains in Nevis but since 1998 it has had a campus in Belize, on Ambergris Cay. St Luke’s University School of Medicine has now moved to Belmopan. Unlike most “off-shore” ventures this is a home-grown initiative; Dr Robert Coye, the President and Academic Dean, is a Belizean. Cayman: St Matthew’s University School of Medicine (SMU) - (http://www.stmatthews.edu/), St Matthew’s University School of Medicine has been in existence since 1997, originally in Belize on Ambergris Cay. In April 2002 it transferred operations to the Cayman Islands.20 Its website claims that it also has its own campus in Maine. There is an Admissions Office in Florida. 11 faculty are listed for the Cayman campus, and 6 20 A newspaper report in Ambergris Today (http://www.ambergristoday.com/archives/7-3-02/#story1) includes some pertinent comments: “When St. Matthew's University opened its doors on the island on 1997, part of their agreement with the Government of Belize was that the university would be granted a 10- year exclusive license, making them the only medical school in the country. This would allow the school to establish itself firmly and ensure security to the school and its students. According to Dr. Haire, there are now three medical schools operating in Belize and two more schools have been accepted to commence operations. One such medical school, Medical University of the Americas, has opened its doors here in San Pedro as well. "We have been given an environment that is not conducive for growth and does not establish our security here in Belize," stated Dr. Haire. "We are surviving, not thriving now." This situation, he says, is not allowing the school to grow and it needs to be self-supportive in order to continue running. St. Matthew's is privately owned and does not receive funding from the U.S or Belizean Government. Dr. Thornton showed how student enrollment for St. Matthew's grew from 25 (since its inception) to 214 at its peak. Today, enrollment has dropped and the school cannot afford to lose more students. The Government of Cayman has assured the security that St. Matthew's is looking for. "We will be the only school there and we are being invited with open arms by their government," said Dr. Haire. Dr. Haire assured us that St. Matthew's presence in Belize would not disappear completely. Their research foundation in San Ignacio will remain in operation and three of their current faculty members will move there. Furthermore, Dr. Harris is looking into opening a marine research institution on the island that will benefit both parties. Of great concern to Mr. Haire and the school will be St. Matthew's faculty and staff personnel who will be losing their jobs. "About 70% of our faculty are Belizean," he stated. "We also have 21 staff members who are Belizean. We have tried to become Belizean." Investing in Belize and hiring Belizeans was part of the school's agreement with the Government of Belize. They are also offering nine full scholarships to Belizean nationals of which the first one is due to graduating in August. St. Matthew's will still be honoring these scholarships which include full tuition, books and a stipend that add up to almost $30,000US per year/per student. 22 adjunct; 35 for Maine, but all of these are based elsewhere. Through an affiliation with St. Joseph's College (SJC) of Maine, a Catholic liberal arts college, St. Matthew's students can earn a Master of Science in Health Services Administration degree from SJC while they are completing the Doctor of Medicine degree with SMU. The article quoted in footnote 20 makes the further claim that “San Pedro and Belize will have to accept the loss of more than $40MU.S. that St. Matthew's University directly pumps into the economy.” Dominica: Ross University School of Medicine – (http://www.rossmed.edu) Founded in 1978, Ross caters to the US market. Students spend four semesters in Dominica, with some pre-clinical experience in the local hospital, the remaining six semesters are spent in the US. It has a Veterinary School in St Kitts. Ross has just been acquired by DeVry Inc for $310 million. A report on this sale indicates that Ross currently enrols more than 2,500 students, has 90 permanent faculty, revenues of $62 million and net income of $11 million.21 (For comparison, UWI’s overall total income for the year ended July 31, 2002 is stated as $248.5 million, expenditure as $238.5 million.) Grenada: St George’s University – (http://www.sgu.edu/) Founded in 1976, St George’s has expanded beyond its original focus on the US market for medical education. It offers a pre-medical programme, and has now added veterinary medicine, graduate studies (a portfolio that includes a Cricket Academy), and a set of Arts and business programmes that are advertised within the Caribbean. It has close links Both the St. Matthew's community and San Pedro residents have embraced each other as one big family. San Pedro has gained much from the school's medical assistance, fundraisers, volunteering efforts and especially economically. Both have benefited from each other.” 21 See http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030319/cgw060_1.html. 23 with the T.A. Marryshow Community College (TAMCC) and with the local hospital. It also has a campus in St Vincent. Since 1994 it has also sponsored the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation for collaborative research in health and environmental matters. SGU has a number of partnerships with institutions elsewhere: 22 ? ? Cambridge Tutors College, Croydon (UK) ? ? The University of East London ? ? The University of Northumbria ? ? The University of Nottingham ? ? Bermuda College ? ? New Jersey Institute of Technology ? ? Barry University Jamaica: A newspaper report (Observer, June 13th) claims that a US company wants to set up an off-shore medical school in Jamaica. The Health Minister refused to reveal further details. St Kitts and Nevis: St Kitts: International University of Health Sciences (IUHS) – (http://www.iuhs.edu/html/home.html) Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine – (http://www.rossvet.edu/) Windsor University School of Medicine – (http://www.windsor.edu/) Nevis: Medical University of Americas (MUA) - (http://www.mua.edu/) 24 The IUHS offers both on-campus and distance modalities. Its current Vice-Chancellor is Dr Roderick Neame, who runs a Health Informatics company in the UK (he also has an appointment at the University of Kent at Canterbury) and is well-known for advocating new approaches to medical education.23 Until recently, its Web-based material had been licensed from the University of Sydney, but it no longer claims any such affiliation.24 At present it says its links are with the Universal Empire Institute of Medical Sciences, India (www.ueims.com) [but this is an organisation that gives its students IUHS courses at locations in Cochin, Palghat or Dubai], MIES, an educational division of the Modi Group of New Delhi (www.modi.com), which is in turn affiliated with the Apollo International Group (www.apollogrp.com) [there is nothing about MIES on the Modi site, its link is again a matter of offering a IUHS degree; Apollo is the umbrella organisation for the University of Phoenix and other institutions]25, and the London Medical College, England (http://www.lsmedicine.co.uk/) [which is itself a “satellite” of IUHS]. 22 Data taken from http://www.sgu.edu/nhome.nsf/ab898660dd42f6e685256b3e0064c213/a1f928005636aa0d85256bc7005bd6 76?OpenDocument. 23 See, for instance, “Universities without walls: evolving paradigms in medical education” by Roderick Neame, Brooke Murphy, Frank Stitt [at that time Vice-Chancellor of IUHS], and Mark Rake, http://www.studentbmj.com/back_issues/1299/new_tech/new_tech2.html. 24 As recently as 5th April, 2003, information about IUHS at http://www.gradschools.com/listings/distance/md_distance.html had said “With a highly qualified faculty, IUHS has licensed a sophisticated, computer-driven program-- using an on-campus Intranet as well as the Web-- from prestigious Sydney University in Australia, to assist in learning and teaching the whole medical curriculum”, [http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:C3VJLtBS3JMJ:www.gradschools.com/listings/distance/md_distan ce.html+Sydney+Distance+education+medical+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8]; now (12th June) the text reads “With a highly qualified academic faculty, IUHS has a sophisticated, computer-driven program-- using an on- campus Intranet as well as the Web-- to assist in learning and teaching the whole medical curriculum.” 25 A news release from IUHS, held in the Google cache, claims “Modi Innovative Education Society (MIES), an affiliate of the large Modi Group www.modi.com, and the IUHS have joined together in offering a program for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). The program will be offered to qualified nurses seeking further academic credentials. Modi Group also operates a facility of Western International University through a joint agreement with Apollo International, an affiliate of the Apollo Group of Phoenix, Arizona, which is the largest proprietary education group in the USA. While nursing studies will be conducted at the MIES campus in New Delhi, the IUHS will provide the required supervision, as well as the award presented to successful candidates - the IUHS BSN degree. There will also be an opportunity for students to further progress to a Master Degree in Nursing (MSN) by competing a thesis” (from http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:NotrCmq9y- EJ:www.iuhs.edu/v2/html/announcements.html+MIES+India&hl=en&ie=UTF-8). 25 Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine belongs with the medical school in Dominica. In St Kitts students take 7 semesters of pre-clinical training, followed by 3 semesters of clinical work in the US. It appears that Windsor University School of Medicine was located until recently in the Turks and Caicos Islands. (A site, http://www.pg.windsor.edu/mbaintro.html, dated 2001, claims a school of medicine has been successfully set up in Grand Turk and advertises an MBA programme there, but with a picture of a hospital claimed elsewhere to be in St Kitts but which I believe to be in Trinidad.26) Its President, Srinivas Gaddam MD, has this to say about its activity in St Kitts since 2000: “Windsor University is running SCHOOL OF MEDICINE with undergraduate programs in medicine and postgraduate programs in Emergency Medicine, Radiology, Anesthesia, Critical Care and Trauma Surgery. Windsor University is also running School of Business Management with specialization in Global Economy. Windsor University is starting Veterinary school of medicine and Nursing school of medicine this year.”27 MUA opened in 1998 in Nevis to provide a four-year MD degree programme, with the pre-clinical work being done in Nevis. St Lucia: Spartan Health Sciences University School of Medicine (http://spartanmed.org/) This organisation has survived since 1980 in Vieux Fort. St Vincent: There is a campus of St George’s University here, the Kingstown Medical College. See under Grenada. Other Caribbean locations: 26 The AAIMG reports that the “School moved from Turks and Caicos islands where it initially operated with no W.H.O. listing” (http://www.aaimg.com/list/medical.html). 26 There are a number of other off-shore medical schools in the geographical region, including: American International School of Medicine (AISOM), Guyana – (http://www.aism.edu/) American University of the Caribbean (AUC), now St Maarten, originally Montserrat – (http://www.aucmed.edu/) Saba University School of Medicine, Saba – (http://www.saba.edu/) St James School of Medicine, Bonaire – (http://www.sjsm.org/) St Martinus University, Curaçao –(http://www.martinus.edu/indexNM.html) (b) Other Belize: Galen University - http://www.galen.edu.bz/ Galen University, San Ignacio, Cayo, is a self-styled “offshore business and medical school” that plans to open its doors to students in 2003. Some of the personnel seem to have been associated with St Matthews University while it was located in Belize — Galen’s site was considered but rejected by the Board of SMU, and it has prominent links with the Greek Cypriot Intercollege which was earlier associated with SMU. Intercollege and Galen University have entered into a credit transfer agreement under which all credits earned at either institution are accepted by the other. Galen University students can effectively choose whether to have an Intercollege degree. They are told of extensive contacts with US, British and European institutions afforded by the Intercollege connection.28 Galen has also signed an agreement with the United States Sports Academy so that students can enrol in the online Sports Studies programs and complete their chosen course of study by distance learning. The main campus of the United States Sports Academy is in Daphne, Alabama. Founded in 1972 as an independent, special mission graduate school of sport, the role of the Academy in higher education is to 27 http://www.windsor.edu/presidentMsg.htm. 28 Intercollege has a co-operative arrangement with the Henley Management School in the UK that has been favourably reviewed by the QAA. 27 prepare men and women for sports professions in the areas of sport management, sport coaching, recreation management and sport studies.29 Galen’s main interest is business and medicine, but it aspires to a very wide range of disciplines that students from Belize and the rest of the world will study in the peace of Belize’s countryside. Its early appointments in Belize include persons with expertise in “History, Women’s Studies, and Ethics”, “English, ESL, and Education”, “Anthropology, Archeology”, “Ecology, Natural Resource Management”, “Ecology, Environmental Studies”, “Political Science”, “Natural Resources, Development Studies, Sustainability Science, Research Methods, Impact Analysis”, and “International Relations, International Politics, Human Rights” as well as one in “Economics Theory, Financial Economics, Public Finance, Derivatives, International Finance” — indeed most of its business staff are based in Cyprus. (Home base of staff has been taken from their e-mail addresses.) 29 Information here taken from http://www.galen.edu.bz/links.asp. 28 St Kitts & Nevis: Berne University International Graduate School - http://www.berne.edu/ Berne is a graduate school that involves distance education and a residential summer school in St Kitts, making use of the local Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College. Its programmes are in Business, Social Services, and Education. Trinidad and Tobago: Wisconsin International University - http://www.wiu-usa.edu/trinidadcover.htm WIU is newly set up in Port of Spain and planning to begin classes in the classrooms of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Port of Spain. The first programmes to be offered are Master’s degrees, an International Executive MBA and a Human Resource Development programme, both of which will emphasise international business. Plans are being developed for undergraduate programmes. 2.6 Virtual universities Antigua: University of Health Sciences Antigua (UHSA) School of Medicine - (http://www.uhsa.com/online/). UHSA is no longer restricted to medical training, as can be seen from their comprehensive programme listing at http://www.uhsa.com/pstudent/general/proglist.htm. Among other programmes, they offer an Associate of Arts degree that is meant to be the first two years of a 4-year Bachelors. In Philosophy, it gives 5 hours out of 90 to Philosophy. Bahamas: McHari Institute – (http://www.mchari-institute.com/) 29 This locally owned organisation, set up in 1979, offers a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes on-line. British Virgin Islands: Columbia Union University – (http://www.columbiaunionuniversity.edu/) Commonwealth Open University, (COU), Tortola, BVI – (http://www.commopu.org/commopu.htm). Columbia Union University has a US agent and one in the BVI. It advertises an extensive system of awarding credit for previous experience. To quote from its website, “fees include admissions, academic evaluations, graduation and the shipping of your diploma and credentials. Our graduates are supplied with a premium quality diploma, printed on 36lb. cotton paper bearing the University’s seal. We ship your degree with an official transcript of record listing all of your transfered [sic] college courses and your experiential learning converted by us to traditional college credit hours. Similiar [sic] colleges forward a generic transcript not reflecting your individual accomplishments. Remember, Columbia Union University awards “earned” legitimate degrees, not diploma mill degrees. Our graduates also receive signed and sealed forms of State registration and membership approvals.”30 The COU provides open entry, with a range of programmes up to PhD. Its Bookshop is Amazon.com and the UK branch; its virtual library is the WWW Virtual Library. Turks & Caicos: St Clements University, Turks & Caicos - (http://www.stclements.edu/) This institution allegedly “operates via a network of Campus Learning Centres, Partner Schools and Affiliated Schools”, most of which are in Africa. Its location in Turks is a Registered Office (it also claims “The University is also registered on the Independent Commonwealth nation of St Vincent & The Grenadines”). Its administrative office is in 30 See http://www.columbiaunionuniversity.edu/. 30 Zambia. “St Clements University's degrees are primarily designed for candidates who are working in, or have experience, or previous knowledge in the field they wish to study. This often enables course work to be tailored for individual needs, and recognition to be given for candidates work related educational experiences.” No fees are given on the website from which all the preceding quotations are taken. 2.7 Open and distance universities Many open and distance education providers are empowered to accept students from any location. Traditional “correspondence course” programmes required only a postal service and many new Internet-based programmes are equally disconnected from locally available personnel or informational resources. Usage of both these types of provision is very difficult to establish — it is well-known that the external University of London LLB was, and remains, an important route into the legal profession in the Caribbean; IGNOU recruited postgraduate Education students in Trinidad when it launched a new programme; a recent employee in the UWIDEC was taking an Internet course from Australia. But many distance education programmes are not so entirely delinked from particular places. They may involve short periods of residence at a campus or regular group sessions, which may themselves be at a distance from the provider, using teleconferences, or local tutorial support. In such cases, a certain amount of local organisation is required, so that such programmes become more visible. There are several such distance education programmes operating in the Caribbean. One such programme is itself somewhat complex, involving three Canadian universities operating in four Caribbean countries. It is also a pilot project, undertaken by the Commonwealth of Learning to demonstrate a new and more cost-effective way of using Canadian funds for overseas student scholarships. It is not clear whether it will be continued. The project (the Canadian Caribbean Distance Education Scholarship Programme, CCDESP) began in 1998 as a 5-year project in which Athabasca University 31 would provide a BSc in Information Technology to students in Jamaica, Memorial University of Newfoundland would offer teacher education degrees to students in Dominica and St Vincent, and Mount St Vincent (MSVU) would provide degrees in tourism management to students in St Lucia and St Vincent. Each programme is delivered mostly by distance education modalities, involving some usage of the UWIDEC network, but with a period of work at the Canadian campus. It was reported that of the first batch of IT students, 11 graduated at a ceremony on Dec 16th 2001 with BSc degrees or Certificates in Computing and Information systems, while 14 more were continuing with their studies. While it is perhaps the largest distance education institution in Canada, international students amount to no more than 4% of Athabasca’s intake. A similar number (23) of teacher education students was admitted in the first batch by Memorial.31 While these numbers are not large, a remark in the press release describing the beginning of the programme indicates one benefit to Memorial that accrued from the programme: “the employment and business development opportunities it has brought with it. The program has meant the development by IDON EAST, a local multimedia firm, of the eight Web-based courses required for the completion of the B.Ed. This public/private sector partnering bodes well for establishing Memorial as a global provider of distance education products and services. Development of the courses was supported through funding by the Canada/Newfoundland Agreement on Economic Renewal.” In this context it might not be amiss to remark that, while the CCDESP has been publicised as a matter of co-operation between the Canadian universities and the UWI, collaboration has been virtually non-existent. Since the three disciplines involved are all normal UWI subjects, it was initially decided that collaboration should proceed only if the programmes were restructured to become joint UWI-Canadian degrees, a condition that would require considerable UWI input into new or revised courses. It was obvious 31 See http://www.mun.ca/univrel/gazette/1999-2000/May.18/newspage7.html 32 from subsequent events that such collaboration was never on the cards, so that the degrees quickly became purely Canadian affairs. Separately, MSVU is offering two Masters programmes in Adult Education for students in Kingston, Jamaica (MEd and MA in Education). It is associated here with the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy and the Jamaican Council on Adult Education. Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, through the Edinburgh Business School, has a special set of distance education MBA programmes for the Caribbean, with administrative offices in Trinidad at the School of Business and Computer Science.32 It uses UWI facilities to conduct examinations throughout the region. The University of Portsmouth’s Masters degree in Strategic Business IT is offered through the School of Accounting and Management in Trinidad. The same Trinidadian institution offers a BA in Marketing Management from the Ashcroft International Business School of Anglia Polytechnic University, a degree in Computing and Information Systems which is offered through the NCC Education UK and awarded by London Guildhall University, and an MBA from Henley Management College. Resource Development International (RDI) operates a network of providers for the dissemination of various UK business qualifications, ranging from access programmes at certificate and diploma level up to MBAs. The UK institutions are Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Sunderland, and the University of Leicester. RDI advertises in Barbados (Advocate, 22/06/03) but its nearest providers are in Trinidad (The Professional Institute of Marketing and Business Studies) and in St Lucia (the National Research & Development Foundation). Holborn College in London also advertises in Barbados (Nation, July 18, 2003) for distance education Law degrees offered in partnership with the University of Wolverhampton. 32 See http://www.sbcstnt.com/mba.html. 33 In Trinidad, the School of Business and Computer Science (SBCS) provides teaching for degrees from four English universities: University of London, University of Sunderland, University of Greenwich, and University of Leicester. The University of Sheffield has made a concerted effort to recruit Caribbean students in distance education programmes in Education at various levels. It claims that about 250 students have been trained through programmes of various sorts.33 Groups have been organised in St Lucia and notably in Trinidad in association with teachers’ organisations. There has recently been some concern at the level of supervision for St Lucian students. The University of St Thomas, a Roman Catholic institution in Minnesota, has been offering on-line graduate programmes in Education in the Bahamas, through its School of Education. Though it does not involve teaching programmes, it might also be worth noting a tele- medicine link that has existed since 1998 between Dalhousie University and St Kitts. Dalhousie has also helped in the provision of eye-care to that island. The link is not unrelated to the fact that the Governor-General is an alumnus of Dalhousie. . 2.8 Others Here we will list private locally owned institutions that are now providing teaching for qualifications in the tertiary market-place. Bahamas: There are a number of private institutions now offering Associate Degrees and other tertiary qualifications, in addition to the public College of the Bahamas (which is in the process of becoming a University College). The private colleges include: Atlantic College and Theological Seminary (see above under twinning partners) 33 See http://www.shef.ac.uk/education/courses/MEdTT.shtml. 34 Bahamas Baptist Community College Benedictine University College (see above under foreign universities) Success Training College – (http://www.successbahamas.com/index.php) Barbados: Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (see above under twinning partners) Capitol Business Solutions – unregistered tuition provider for ACCA. Caribbean School of Business & Management – teaches for Cambridge Management Awards (offered by the examinations branch of the University of Cambridge). Prestige Accounting bookshop and Accountancy College – registered for ACCA qualifications which allow the award of a BSc from Oxford Brookes University. Jamaica: The University Council of Jamaica lists the following private education and training institutions as registered as of January 2002: B & B Institute of Business Bethel Bible College Caribbean Graduate School of Theology The Catholic College of Mandeville College of Accountants Training Dental Auxiliary School Individual Systems Ltd. Infoserv Institute of Technology Institute for Theological & Leadership Development Institute of Computer Technology Institute of Management & Production (now owned by the following entity) Institute of Management Sciences (see above under twinning partners) Jamaica Institute of Bankers (see above under twinning partners) Jamaican Institute of Management Jamaica Theological Seminary Liberal Arts College of Jamaica 35 Northern Caribbean University – (http://www.ncu.edu.jm) Seventh Day Adventist. Software Training Centre The Jamaica Open College Vector Technology Institute In addition there are the following organisations reported as registered by the ACCA: Accountancy Trainers Corporate Business Institute St Kitts: Caribbean Consulting Group – registered by the ACCA. St Lucia: National Research and Development Foundation Trinidad: Automation Technology College Caribbean Institute of Language & Business Caribbean Nazarene Theological College – (http://www.cntc.edu/) Some General Studies offered in addition to theological material. Caribbean Union College – (http://www.cuc.edu.tt/cuc/index.html) see above under twinning partners. CUC is a Seventh Day Adventist institution, recognised by the Government as a teacher training institution, but with a much more comprehensive set of degrees. Cipriani College of Labour & Co-operative Studies Complete Technology Solutions Herman Marcano & Assoc. Ltd. ICS Learning Systems Institute of Banking & Finance Institute of Law and Academic Studies 36 Institute of Tertiary Tutors (ITT) – (http://www.itt123.com/) Provides teaching for University of London external students. Institute of Training and Development Limited – (http://www.intadltd.com/) Provides teaching for various external qualifications: Microsoft Certified systems engineer, London Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Association of Business Executives, Chartered Institute of Marketing, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Metal Industries Company Omardeen School of Accounting – Institute offering tuition for ACCA and other courses. Professional School of Accountancy Ltd – Registered by ACCA. RBTT ROYTEC – (see above under twinning partners). School of Accounting and Management – (http://www.samtt.com/home.htm) See above under distance education. SAM also provides teaching for external London students. School of Business and Computer Science (SBCS) – (http://www.sbcstnt.com/) See above under distance education. Also registered by ACCA. Students Accountancy Centre – Registered by ACCA. The Professional Institute of Marketing and Business Studies – See under distance education above. The West Indies School of Theology. 37 3 - Status of new providers and relationships and interaction with public and private education-business The preceding pages may well leave an impression of considerable confusion. Globally, the tertiary education landscape in the countries we are dealing with comprises: 1. The regional university, UWI, with campuses in 3 islands, Centres in the rest. 2. National universities or university colleges in the Bahamas, Belize, and Jamaica; soon in Barbados and Trinidad. We may add the University of the Virgin Islands as well. 3. National, publicly funded colleges, at least one in each country, almost all of which are striving to teach at the level of Associate Degree and sometimes beyond. 4. A considerable number of private, locally owned institutions focussing mainly on business and informatics, several of which are also conduits for external degrees from mostly UK universities. Some are now moving on-line. (Adding to these the direct incursions of external providers given in 2.1, we have noted about 50 cases.) 5. A small number of private institutions that are targeting students from the region as well as from beyond for a more diverse range of programmes (e.g., NCU, St George’s, CUC [enrolment 1998, 871], possibly Galen). 6. Programmes certified and awarded by external institutions, taught to some extent through local institutions, but often with direct involvement of staff from the external provider. (Programmes from 24 different external universities or institutions have been noted, 10 more for the offshore “for profit” institutions.) 7. Distance Education programmes from reputable external providers administered locally in different countries. (16 external sources have been noted.) 8. Institutions of very varying quality that are not targeting the local population; some operate with extensive periods of face-to-face teaching, others are approaching the status of virtual universities. Some would no doubt be considered “degree mills”. (20 [+ 5 in other countries in the geographical region] noted currently active.) Table 3:1 Number of External/private providers by country 38 Country Ext./twin External DE Private Off-shore Virtual Antigua 1 Bahamas 4 1 3 1 Barbados 3 4 Belize 19 5 BVI 9 2 Cayman 1 1 Dominica 1 1 Grenada 1 Jamaica 8 1 22 St Kitts 1 5 St Lucia 1 1 1 St Vincent 2 Trinidad 3 10 21 1 Turks 2 1 These are what one can find “on the ground”, summarised also in Table 3:1. As in almost every other area of life, the wider world impinges very directly on tertiary education in the Caribbean, through the large number of students who travel abroad for this stage of their education. Some data will be presented in section 4 below. The relationships and interaction of our new providers with the more established higher education sphere can be discussed from various perspectives. In many cases what has happened is close to what developed when the UWI allowed people to “challenge” some of its level I examinations. This system was designed in such a way that students were only given a syllabus; mastering its content was left entirely up to them. Very quickly, Resident Tutors at the various University Centres perceived a market in providing local teaching support for such students; students would also co- operate amongst themselves in hiring a person to help them. The institutions in Trinidad that assist people in preparing for London external degrees are providing the very same 39 sort of service, and it is likely that several other institutions are more concerned that people are paying for their material and examinations than with the quality of the instruction provided by the local institutions that in effect herd such students. On the other hand, many distance education programmes (such as UWI’s own) rely heavily on local tutorial support and thus demand that their providers take some care about the quality of such local teaching. We know of cases where UWI staff are employed to assist in the local teaching of foreign distance education programmes. But this has always been as a strictly private transaction; the UWI itself has not been formally involved in offering its teaching services. Again, professional organisations often evaluate those who wish to provide teaching for their qualifications. The ACCA, for example, classifies the institutions it registers into three grades. In the many cases of twinning partners what one can see is often the result of local ambitions to expand and upgrade provision, frustrated by the unwillingness of the obvious local partner (UWI) to facilitate them. Here one might want to distinguish the campus countries (Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad) from the others. A person wanting to do an MBA in Jamaica may be in reach of the Mona Institute of Business, his or her counterpart in Nassau isn’t. But this distinction is fundamentally flawed. For one thing, a person in Montego Bay in Jamaica is almost as far — in terms of travel time — from Mona as one in Cayman. It is sheer lack of imagination that has privileged the campuses and their immediate environs over the rest of the region they are intended to serve. Of the three UWI MBA programmes, the one offered at Cave Hill has attempted, through short intensive sessions in different islands, to go some way to equalising access for students from campus and non-campus countries. Obviously, the Internet offers much greater opportunities to make the distinction of no significance. For another, the greatest proliferation of non-UWI MBAs has occurred precisely on the campuses’ doorsteps in Jamaica and Trinidad. Here we have the all-too-common inability of the UWI to even begin to address existing demand. The same factor plays some role also in most of the distance education programmes we have noted — very few 40 could be said to be in areas outside UWI’s competence, but equally UWI had, and still has, no equivalent distance education material. Some further comments on this matter will be made in section 10. For a third, the UWI has traditionally done little, and has been perceived as doing nothing, to encourage the development of other institutions, either in non-campus countries or on its own door-steps. So it is not surprising that Belize sought the help of Ferris State University in Michigan34 and later of a host of other US institutions through COBEC, rather than hoping that UWI would put resources into developing its fledgling national colleges. It is not, however, a matter of sheer inaction. Let us take the Belize case again. US institutions could expect payment for their developmental services, if not directly from the Government of Belize then from various sources of development aid. UWI might also, but it would be regarded as somewhat unfair in expecting such payment — isn’t it part of the UWI’s developmental mandate? US institutions could hope to recruit students through articulating with Belizean programmes, and they could expect to provide their own students with comparatively accessible opportunities for Study Abroad. The UWI campuses could have seen little in such possible benefits. They have not in general been in need of more applicants, and they have no tradition of allowing or expecting students to study abroad. A Ferris State could then see advantages in taking Belize under its wing in a way that Mona might not. 34 For an account of the haphazard way the original link with Ferris State came about, see Eve Aird, “The Evolution of the Belizean University”, paper given at the Belize Country Conference, 2001, http://www.uwichill.edu.bb/bnccde/belize/conference/papers/Aird.html. 41 4 - Impact on student enrolment at the national level In terms of the categories offered in section 3 above, we may consider the effects on student enrolment at the national level of a) the business/IT focussed group b) the more general group c) locally taught programmes from external providers d) distance education programmes from external providers The off-shore medical schools (apart from St George’s which is considered in category (b) and whose impact is not yet in medical studies) make almost no difference currently to national enrolments. As far as the first group is concerned, it is fair to say that no one can cope with the existing demand. These institutions have sprung up to capitalise on it, and despite fluctuations in the wider economy and the generally uninspired performance of the region’s economies themselves, it does not seem that demand is flagging. So these institutions have not affected numbers in the more traditional national sector. Their numbers are, however, sometimes considerable: in Trinidad, the SBCS has 1,997, SAM has 2,360, and ITT 660. It is also important to note that students of these institutions are predominantly people already in employment. They are not the sort of person the traditional sector is designed to deal with. The UWI, for instance, has done very little to adjust to the fact that more and more of its students, whether registered full-time or not, are in fact working people, and working people with little access to flexi-time. National Colleges, deriving in many cases from 6th form colleges, are probably even less geared in general to more mature and part-time students. The second small group of institutions that offer a wider range of programmes are more directly in competition with national institutions. Two of them are Seventh Day Adventist organisations with a potential clientele based on that denomination (CUC enrols 803 at the moment; the other denominational College in Trinidad, CNTC, has only 264). St George’s is the only other institution in this group that has been operating long 42 enough for an impact to be detected. However, its entanglement with TAMCC is such that it is not easy to say whether it is having an effect on recruitment to that institution. What can be said is that enrolments in the UWI’s distance education programmes in Grenada have always been noticeably lower than in comparable locations (see Table 4:1). The third group overlaps the first in many cases (the business programmes). Where there might be some potential loss to more traditional providers is in the case of the various Education programmes (upgrading to Bachelor’s and postgraduate). But the upgrading programmes so far have been in Jamaica, where traditionally the UWI BEd is oversubscribed, so it would seem that the new programmes are meeting unsatisfied demand rather than diverting it. The postgraduate programmes are often focussed in a way that UWI’s tend not to be, so they can be seen as offering things unavailable locally. It is in general true that UWI programmes lack the sort of specificity of many external providers — the UWI Dept. of Management Studies offers only a BSc in Management Studies, in Accounting, and in Public Sector Management, compared with the range of apparently more focussed degrees available elsewhere. Table 4:1 Enrolments in UWIDEC programmes Year Dominica Grenada St Vincent 1990/91 47 27 68 1991/92 57 47 65 1992/93 128 124 135 1993/94 87 90 124 1994/95 76 42 80 1995/96 114 44 117 1996/97 148 60 151 1997/98 69 43 110 1998/99 112 60 141 1999/00 160 103 151 43 2000/01 204 111 186 2001/02 201 122 183 2002/03 220 131 174 It is not easy to estimate the impact of the various distance education providers. On the one hand there is as yet no local competition in that modality, apart from the UWI Management Studies degree; on the other it is not always obvious that a person doing X by distance could not have done X in more traditional ways with a local provider. There is one area in which an impact on enrolment is masked by the fact that UWI maintains a rigid quota: the LLB programme. In 2000/01, UWI registered 440 students in the Faculty of Law. From data provided by the University of London external programme, there are currently (July 3, 2003) 887 persons from the region registered for the LLB and 43 more for the Masters of Laws. 1,653 are studying other programmes. The overwhelming group is from Trinidad and Tobago: 588 LLBs, 17 Masters, and 1,448 others (including a remarkable 83 doing Geography degrees). In the other territories, LLBs usually make up the majority of London external students (e.g., Barbados 70 vs. 17; Jamaica 121 vs. 78; only St Lucia approaches Trinidad’s approximation to the global distribution, 9 vs. 33). In all, 2,583 persons are currently registered with London. While some of the programmes we have noted allow or encourage local students to move on to complete studies or progress to further studies at the home institution, the impact of the external world is much more strongly felt directly through the recruitment of students to study abroad. For a good while, several institutions have participated in annual “College Fairs” with the aim of recruiting students. In Belize, COBEC organises such a fair. In 2000/2001, the 44 University of South Florida claimed to have 83 Belizean students.35 In the eastern Caribbean, a sequence of fairs is organised through the US student advisor whose office is in Mexico. An analysis of the participants in the 2002 College Fair in St Lucia shows 13 Canadian participants (Acadia University, St Mary’s University, Seneca College, Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology, Canadore College, Nipissing University, Mount St Vincent University, Carleton University, Algoma University College, Dalhousie University, Trent University, Queen’s University, University of Ottawa), 8 US (Towson University, Berkeley College, New England Institute of Technology, Webber International University, St Leo University, University of Miami, The Art Institutes, Florida Memorial College), and 5 regional (UVI, Alliance Française St Lucia, Caribbean Union College [Trinidad], UWI Cave Hill, University of St Martin). It is noteworthy that most of these have not featured in our previous discussions. These and other modes of recruitment make a significant impact on the education of Caribbean people. Table 4:2 gives the number of foreign students studying in the US from the Caribbean islands in 2000/01 and also the number of students from those same islands enrolled and attending the three UWI campuses. Apart from the campus countries, Montserrat, and St Vincent, there are more students in the US than at UWI. Even though some of the US students may be in programmes at a pre-university level, this is a significant display of regional priorities. Table 4:2 – Caribbean students studying in the US and at UWI Place of Origin In the US, 2000/01 At UWI campuses, 2000/01 Anguilla 65 9 Antigua 271 126 Bahamas 1,762 174 Barbados 647 3,316 35 Data from http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:z4IaJG_FIJ4J:w3.usf.edu/iac/statistics.htm+University+of+SOuth+F lorida+Belize&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 (Google cache). 45 British Virgin Islands 84 20 Cayman Islands 243 2 Dominica 258 87 Grenada 281 82 Jamaica 4,225 8,571 Montserrat 10 22 St Kitts-Nevis 271 104 St Lucia 267 238 St Vincent 139 164 Trinidad & Tobago 2,901 6,307 Turks & Caicos 48 14 Total 11,472 19,236 Note: Data from the Institute for International Education and the UWI Vice-Chancellor’s Report to Council, April 2002. For Canada, there are data on the number of applications for student visas received and awarded at Canadian offices in Kingston and Port of Spain. The figures given by Citizenship and Immigration Canada include unexplained discrepancies but suggest that in 1999 about 347 visas were issued at Kingston and between 131 and 511 at Port of Spain, with the 2000 figures being 398 and 550, respectively.36 Data for the UK give the numbers accepted into degree programmes from various countries, as shown in Table 4:3.37 Table 4:3 – Students accepted into UK degree programmes, 2000 Country Students accepted Anguilla 0 Antigua and Barbuda 9 36 See http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/study/. 37 Constructed at the interactive site: http://search1.ucas.co.uk/fandf00/index6.html. 46 Bahamas 24 Barbados 35 Belize 4 Cayman Islands 13 Dominica 5 Grenada 2 Jamaica 70 Montserrat 5 St Kitts Nevis 2 St Lucia 22 St Vincent 10 Trinidad and Tobago 59 Turks and Caicos Is 6 Virgin Is, British 3 Total 269 Assuming the US figures reflect students at every level of a programme, one can say that it is likely that about 3,000 Caribbean students begin programmes in the US each year, just under 1,000 in Canada and about 300 in the UK. One may compare that with the total new on-campus admissions to UWI, full- and part-time, in 1999, of 6,554, to franchised programmes of 362, affiliates of 46, and distance education programmes of 973 (UWI, Official Statistics, 1999/2000 Tables 5 and 33). These rough estimates may, however, be based on untenable assumptions. Comparison with UNESCO’s data,38 suggests that the Canadian and UK estimates may be seriously in error since in 1998 the UNESCO publication claims that there were only about 900 students from the Caribbean enrolled in Canada while there were almost 2000 in the UK. 38 Found in Good neighbours: Caribbean students at the tertiary level of education, UNESCO Institute of Statistics, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001240/124005e.pdf 47 5 - Subjects focused on by new providers Business Perhaps the major subject grouping among our external providers is Business. Here we find a number of programmes at the Bachelor’s level: proposed between HLSCC and Wright State University, in operation from FIU in Jamaica, Business Administration from UNB and Marketing Management from Anglia Polytechnic University in Trinidad, and Wilberforce in Turks. More visible, however, are the various postgraduate programmes, MBAs or EMBAs, often with a variety of specialisations. In Jamaica they are offered by Nova, UNO, SEMS, FIU, and IFM (specialising in finance). In Trinidad one can have them from various sources. In the British Virgin Islands, Wright has a programme, and throughout the region one can take the Heriot-Watt programme. Closely related to these topics are the various qualifications in Accounting; we have noted several institutions in Trinidad and elsewhere that are registered by the ACCA. Information Technology Programmes focussing on the use of computers, often with a business focus, are also prominent. There is an enormous range of elementary work in this area, but at a more advanced level we have the Athabasca degree work in Jamaica and several degree programmes of various types available in Trinidad from various universities. Education Another major area we have found is Education. Here again we have a lot of programmes at the two levels already distinguished: Bachelors and post-graduate. Traditionally, Teachers’ Colleges have provided three-year courses that yield a 48 Certificate, validated in the north-western Caribbean by the UWI-based Joint Board for Teacher Education. It is clear that many Teachers’ Colleges wish to convert these programmes to full degree level, so several external providers are working with them on such upgrading (e.g. Temple, MSVU). There are also straightforward BEd degrees on offer, such as the UNB degree available through ROYTEC. There are also a number of postgraduate programmes in Education: Special Education (Miami in Bahamas); Counselling (Kent State in Bahamas); Educational Administration (UVI at HLSCC); Early Childhood (USF at Shortwood); Adult Education (MSVU in Jamaica); unspecified Doctoral and Masters programmes (Nova in Jamaica; St Thomas in Bahamas; Sheffield throughout the region). In the case of Education it is worth also distinguishing between programmes sponsored by Governments and usually funded by development agencies and those that are offered on the open market. Medicine In terms of the number of institutions, an obviously important area is that of the medical sciences, but this is an area that is mainly aimed at students from outside the region. Given, however, the enormous demand for medical training that UWI leaves unsatisfied, and given the growing salience of some off-shore medical schools in their country of residence, a small number of local students are being recruited, and some schools have subsidised rates of tuition for Caribbean students. These numbers remain small, in part because none of the off-shore schools is yet recognised by the Governments of the region so that graduates can practise medicine. This is likely to change fairly rapidly when a new regional mechanism for accrediting medical degrees is set up. One might wonder at the role of the two veterinary schools in this context. The UWI Veterinary School in Trinidad does not see itself in competition with Ross or St George’s, but it believes that the international market could sustain its entering into such 49 competition. It would like to recruit about 30 extra-regional students annually — approximately 120 are taken by each of the other private institutions. What it now sees as impacting negatively on its regional recruitment is the Cuban Government’s generous scholarship schemes (which also cover ordinary medical training). At another level in the status hierarchy, we may note that two external providers are working on issues in nursing education, both in the British Virgin Islands. Given the chronic shortage of nurses in the post-industrial world and the chronic need of Caribbean economies for remittances, it may not be long before other countries seek to increase the flow of well-trained nurses directly into metropolitan markets. Law With respect to Law, the UWI is favourably placed since students with UWI LLB degrees have automatic entry to the Law Schools, whereas all other students have to compete for places. The quota restriction that forms part of the inter-governmental treaty dealing with legal education has often been found irksome, but the special status of UWI has meant that attempts to circumvent it, as recently in the Bahamas, have involved the local teaching of the UWI degree. Only in the Cayman Islands is a non-UWI law degree taught locally. But a lot of people are prepared to compete for Law School places and so the External London degree remains very popular — indeed more students are taking it than the UWI LLB — and we have noted institutions in Trinidad that offer tuition for it. We may note also advertisements for similar qualifications awarded by the University of Wolverhampton. An area that has not yet appeared very significant is law for non-lawyers. But some external provision is to be found in programmes dealing with international finance and telecommunications. 50 Tourism Despite its significance for the region’s economies, tourism and related activities are not well represented in the external provision of tertiary education. The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College has taken a lead in this regard, but it remains almost alone. Several public institutions have in fact linked with the UWI in offering a BSc in Hospitality and Tourism Management. Others Other areas of study have been found occasionally among the external provision: Sports; Disaster Management; Public Administration; etc. A very small number of institutions offer a wide range of programmes. St George’s has opened up its pre-medical programme to become a typical Liberal Arts curriculum; Galen appears to aspire to something similar.39 The two Seventh Day Adventist institutions also offer a comprehensive range of subjects. 39 See its listing at http://www.galen.edu.bz/curriculum.asp. 51 6 - Quality certification awarded by new providers and quality assurance and accreditation system offered by the new providers Institutions in the US may be accredited by regional or professional entities. This is not legally necessary for their operation, but is often a precondition for eligibility to receive public resources. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation maintains an on-line database that gives those institutions that are accredited by participating or recognised organisations or are recognised by the United States Department of Education as of 2000- 2001.40 Some but by no means all of the US institutions mentioned in section 2 are in this database. But even when they do appear in it, this does not necessarily mean that the institution’s international activity has itself been reviewed, though there are now policies for how such affiliations and contractual arrangements should be handled. In this context the Belize experience is instructive: when Ferris State contracted to assist Belize it agreed to have its Belizean operations accredited, but this accreditation was refused — this was in fact one of the main reasons for terminating the relationship (see the article referred to in footnote 34). It is also worth noting that traditionally accreditation in the US has focussed on operating standards rather than on the institution’s teaching or impact on student outcomes. US-owned “off-shore” institutions do not fall under the jurisdiction of US accreditation agencies, although a small number of institutions outside the US have been accredited by them.41 There is, however, an unofficial organisation in the US, the American Association of International Medical Graduates (AAIMG), that promotes the interests of doctors who have been trained by off-shore institutions and which operates its own system of evaluation. Its latest verdicts are:42 1 Meeting or exceeding its criteria American University of the Caribbean - St. Maarten 40 Accesible at http://www.chea.org/institutions/search.cfm. 41 See Philip Altbach, “American Accreditation of Foreign Universities: Colonialism in Action”, http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/News32/text003.htm. 42 From http://www.aaimg.com/. 52 Ross University School of Medicine, Saba University School of Medicine, St. George's University School of Medicine, 2 Provisional Medical University of the Americas - Nevis 3 Significant deficiencies Windsor School of Medicine – St Kitts International University of the Health Sciences – St Kitts St. Matthews School of Medicine (when it was in Belize) University of the Health Sciences, Antigua Spartan Health Sciences University – St Lucia Central American Health Sciences University - Belize American International School of Medicine - Guyana Grace University - Belize In Canada, “the closest equivalent to accreditation is the appropriate provincial charter coupled with membership in the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. AUCC members offer academic programs of the highest quality, with a reputation that extends far beyond our borders.”43 The AUCC database is accessible at http://oraweb.aucc.ca/showdcu.html. The UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) audits all UK universities, primarily to establish that they have appropriate arrangements in place to safeguard their academic standards and the standard of their awards, and that the information they provide to stakeholders is sound and accurate. As part of this remit it is responsible for reviewing distance education provision and link arrangements whereby UK universities award degrees taught locally. Codes of Practice and Guidelines exist for these types of provision. To date, however, it has not actually reviewed any arrangement involving the Caribbean. Perhaps the closest it has come is a review of a partnership between London Guildhall and an institution in Hong Kong which involved NCC 43 From http://www.aucc.ca/can_uni/student_info/int_student/recognize_e.html. 53 Education Ltd, as does its programme at SAM in Trinidad.44 Given its focus on awards made by UK institutions, the QAA does not at the moment concern itself with the quality of materials or other resources produced in the UK for use by others in their own awards. London University has this to say about its relationships with institutions, such as those in Trinidad, that offer tuition for its degrees to external students: Institutions may not enter into or claim a relationship with the University which involves franchising, validation or accreditation. The majority of institutions have an informal relationship with us. There is no written agreement between the University and the institution, and the University does not inspect the institution. Students can choose whether or not to enrol with an institution.45 In the Caribbean, accreditation and quality assurance is in a state of flux. The UWI has a private and secretive system of quality assurance which has been recommended to various other institutions. There are accreditation agencies of various kinds in Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Others are planned for Barbados, the Bahamas, and St Lucia. Other islands have a system of “monitoring” or “registering” institutions but these do not involve any external review of the institution. CARICOM has been considering a proposal for a regional mechanism for several years now,46 fluctuating between the view that any regional entity should follow the establishment of national (or sub-regional) agencies and the view that new national agencies would be superfluous and any work they might do could be more efficiently handled by a regional body. In contrast to this dithering, there has been a fairly prompt reaction to the cessation of accreditation by the UK General Medical Council with respect to UWI’s Faculty of Medical Sciences. The eighth meeting of the CARICOM Council for Human and Social 44 See http://www.qaa.ac.uk/revreps/oseas/london-guildhall_hong-kong/intro.htm. 45 From http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/institutions_for/informal.shtml. 46 The proposal is set out in ACTI, Procedures & Guidelines for the Regional Mechanism for Accreditation, Equivalency & Articulation, Second edition, 2000. 54 Development in April 2003 agreed to set up a regional mechanism for the accreditation of medical education and other health professions. In Belize there is at least some sort of agency for medical schools. A press release reporting a Cabinet Meeting of 13th May 2003 tells us: Cabinet has set up an Accreditation Committee to evaluate applications for the establishment of offshore medical schools in Belize. The Committee will be headed by Education Chief Executive Officer Marian McNab, and comprise Health CEO Henry Anderson, University of Belize President Dr. Corinth Lewis and the President of the Belize Medical and Dental Association. Cabinet has also approved guidelines for implementation by medical schools operating in Belize to ensure that they are compatible with established international standards and are in a position to deliver quality medical and clinical instruction. The guidelines require a sound business plan, a performance deposit, campus development plan, complete core curriculum, and a clinical rotation plan, with timelines for compliance and penalties for non-compliance.47 Jamaica created the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) in 1987. Its mission is “to increase the availability of University level training in Jamaica, through accreditation of institutions, courses and programmes for recognition and acceptability. The Council is empowered to confer degrees, diplomas, certificates and other academic awards and distinctions on those who have pursued courses approved by the Council at associated tertiary institutions.”48 It is noteworthy that the UCJ not only accredits institutions but also awards degrees and other qualifications, somewhat in the way the CNAA once did in the UK. 47 See http://www.belize.gov.bz/pressoffice/press_releases/13-05-2003-2597.shtml. 48 See http://www.ucjamaica.com/profile/index.htm. 55 The UCJ operates with two categories: registration and accreditation. Accreditation is voluntary. Tertiary institutions operating in Jamaica are required to register with UCJ. The aim of registration is to certify that an institution meets certain minimum operating standards. Once registered, institutions can then request accreditation either of the entire institution or of particular programmes. Some external providers have been registered and have had programmes accredited. As of January 2002, the following external programmes had been accredited: ? ? Barry University (Jamaica Programme): Executive Masters in Business Administration (EMBA) ? ? Mount Saint Vincent University (Jamaica Programme): Master in Education, Master of Arts in Education ? ? Nova Southeastern University (Jamaica Programme): Master of Business Administration (MBA), B.Sc. in Professional Management, Master of Science in Human Resource Management (M.Sc./HRM) ? ? University of Manchester and University of Wales/ Jamaica Institute of Bankers: Master of Business Administration (MBA) ? ? University of New Orleans: Master of Business Administration (Executive MBA) Some other external providers were registered: FIU/IMS; Luther Rice Seminary & Bible College; Temple/Church Teachers’ College; and USF/Shortwood. In Trinidad, a Committee on the Recognition of Degrees (CORD), a unit within NIHERST, has become the effective accrediting agency. It is claimed that when external providers wish to establish a campus in Trinidad they must interface with CORD. “An extended evaluation exercise will only be necessary when the programme(s) include course(s) that have been significantly modified or that have not gained accredited status in the country of origin”.49 49 ACTI, Procedures & Guidelines for the Regional Mechanism for Accreditation, Equivalency & Articulation, Second edition, 2000, Appendix 3, p. 110. 56 The actual operationalising of these policies in Trinidad might be revealed by this comment on the Caribbean Nazarene Theological College: The college does have an "unofficial" recognition by NIHERST/CORD (Committee of Recognition of Degrees) and [sic] that two of the CNTC students have been given letters from NIHERST-CORD stating that CNTC was recognized as accredited. However, CNTC has not made application or gone through an accreditation process with NIHERST-CORD. I think it is on the basis of the CETA [Caribbean Evangelical Theological Association] accreditation that they see CNTC as recognized. The Academic Dean (Dr. Silvernail) intends to pursue this with the powers that be so that it can be made official.50 At the moment, the other Caribbean countries lack an agency that has responsibility for conducting the reviews necessary for accreditation. There are systems whereby institutions may be registered, and such systems may on paper permit the conduct of external reviews, as does the St Kitts procedure,51 but in practice registration is merely a bureaucratic, and revenue-generating process. As an example of what such bureaucracy provides, we may note that, in the Bahamas, Atlantic College’s advertisements claim that it is “accredited” by the Department of Public Personnel, and “approved” by the Ministry of Education. But in neither case does this mean that a review by independent experts has taken place. In the case of medical schools, registration by the host government usually leads to a request by the government to the World Health Organisation to have the institution listed in its Directory. Such listing carries absolutely no implication of quality. While the issue is only discussed within the Caribbean as an element in the free movement of skilled labour within the “Single Market and Economy”, one can also see 50 From http://www.nazarene.org/iboe/caribbean/caribbean.html. 51 To be found at http://www.stkittsnevis.net/accreditation.html. 57 the slow pace of CARICOM movement on a regional mechanism as belying the commitments made many years ago in the Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas and Degrees in Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean which was adopted in Mexico City on 19 July 1974 (UN Treaty Series No. 14287).52 52 See http://www.unesco.org/education/studyingabroad/tools/conventions_lac_cover.shtml. 58 7 - Coverage of transnational education services by existing local accreditation/quality systems Summarising the discussion in the previous section, one can say that some externally sourced programmes in Jamaica and Trinidad have been reviewed and accredited by the local agencies (UCJ, CORD). Others haven’t. Programmes offered through partnerships may benefit from whatever quality assurance process is used on the original programme but in general the version on offer in the Caribbean has not been formally examined. Distance education programmes may be accredited, but in general they are not likely to have been. Off-shore providers are not accredited by any official agency. These largely negative results are not unconnected to the fact that, apart from UCJ and possibly CORD, there are no effective national or regional bodies with accreditation or quality assurance responsibilities. 59 8 - Comparative price analysis of services offered by new providers Data on the costs of programmes are spotty and presented in differing formats (by programme, by course, by credit hour, etc.). Although there is a large amount of data on costs at “off-shore” medical schools, these institutions will not be focussed on since they are not at present competing in the local market. Dollars are US unless explicitly stated otherwise. MBAs The MBA programmes are perhaps the main example of foreign penetration. For benchmarking purposes we might note that for full-time MBAs one can pay the University of Cambridge's Judge Institute of Management £22,000 in tuition fees for a 12-month course, or the London Business School £39,000 for two years. Tuition fees for 2003 at the Harvard Business School are over $30,000. The programmes we are considering are, however, part-time. An MBA at the Open University Business School adds up to around £11,000 for the complete degree.53 This is not very different from the rate quoted for Henley Management College of $17,000 (2000 profile from Business Week). The same set of profiles gives $21,414 for Nova Southeastern, and $9,000 (in-state) or $30,000 (out-of-state) for FIU.54 For programmes in the Caribbean the following tuition fees have been found. An EMBA from UWI’s Institute of Business in Trinidad costs TT$36,500 for each of two years, which gives a grand total of approximately US$12,166. At Mona the latest figures are: MBA part time, JA$741,537, full time, JA$601,397, EMBA offered part time only, JA$845,532. That gives a range from roughly $10,000 to $14,000. 53 Data from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3703-686756,00.html. 54 See http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/00pt/index.html. 60 The University of New Orleans EMBA in Jamaica has a total fee for the class beginning in 2003 of $17,500.55 Programme fees include required books and materials and a new laptop computer with Internet access. By way of illustration of the approach to financial aid typical of North America, we may note the existence of a $1,000 “scholarship opportunity for highly qualified students. Those students who graduated from a Jamaican university with first class honors, or with a 3.25/4.00 undergraduate GPA from a school that uses U.S. standards, will be considered for the scholarship.” The FIU/IMS MBA appears to charge tuition of $15,000 (about the average of in- and out-of-state figures given above). The new programme in Barbados in collaboration with Durham Business School is charging £12,000. Education At Mona, in 2002/03, annual fees for the MEd ranged from roughly $900 for the normal face-to-face version to $5,000 for a new on-line programme. The Nova Southeastern University Masters programme in Education charges from $1,400 to $2,450 for 4 credit courses. The complete set costs $7,700. The University of Sheffield Diploma in Education had a fee in 2001 of £2,680; the MEd. was £4,020 (sterling). These are yearly charges. Law In general, the University of London tells its prospective students that while each programme has its peculiarities, “as a guideline, however, the total cost of fees paid to the University by an External student for a University of London degree is likely to be 55 This and following quote from http://www.business.uno.edu/emba/jamaica/admission.html. 61 between £1,500 (sterling) and £2,500. Besides the fees payable to the University, you will need to budget for the cost of purchasing textbooks (this may well be in the region of £300 per year); the cost of any tuition that you arrange and the fee that is levied by your local examination centre to cover their costs.”56 Others One might think London is cheap, but it is possible to pay less for a qualification. Thus at Columbia Union University the current all-inclusive fees are Associate: $595.00 Bachelor: $695.00 Master/MBA: $895.00 Doctor/PH.D.: $1295.00 In addition it lists a “Credit Banking Service” charge of $395.00, and Official Transcripts at $25.00 each. CUU claims “there are no hidden costs at Columbia Union University. The above fees include admissions, academic evaluations, graduation and the shipping of your diploma… ” Galen gives it tuition fees by credit hour: Undergraduate Arts & Science $200 per credit hr. Business $200 per credit hr. Graduate M. SS. (USSA) $375 per credit Ph.D. (USSA) $500 per credit Graduate Studies $300 per credit hr. Summer 2003 Study Abroad All summer courses $400 per credit hr. 56 See http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/faqs/undergrad/ug_cost.shtml. The details for the Law degree are available at http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/undergraduate/law/fees.shtml. 62 Medical Schools UWI’s Faculty of Medical Sciences at Mount Hope in Trinidad operates in a “cost recovery” mode and does in fact have a co-operative arrangement with a Medical College in Manipal, India. Its tuition fees for non-nationals in 2002/03 are Pre-clinical years $13,200 and Clinical years $16,500. At those rates a normal MBBS should then cost $72,600. Trinidad nationals receive a 50% subsidy. (From 2003, these rates are due to increase to $15,000 and $18,000.) Ross University is admirably straightforward: “the cost of tuition is approximately $95,000 for the entire 10 semester program. This does not include books, housing, food, and other non-tuition costs. This compares with an average of $110,000 for U.S. schools and $125,000 for the only other offshore school with comparable U.S. approvals.” Its semester charges are for full-time Basic Science students $9,135 and for students in the Clinical Science programme $9,620. MUA in Nevis charges between $5000 and $5,950 per semester.57 St Luke’s University in Belize is a case where there is a differential between fees for foreign students and those for Belizean nationals.58 Tuition per semester for Basic Sciences is $6,875, Clinical Sciences $7,900, but Belizean nationals are charged $3,500 and $3,950, respectively. Spartan University also offers St Lucian nationals a 75% scholarship. 57 Full details at http://www.mua.edu/finan_tuitionandfees.php. 58 The details can be found at http://www.stluke.edu.bz/tuition/. 63 9 - Information sources As the references make clear, almost all the information on new providers is derived from websites, either their own or occasionally other institutions’. One ought to note here the value of the Google cache in preserving material that the original source has changed or deleted. Data on tertiary education in the region is in general badly organised. Ministries may publish some; the UWI issues annual collections of statistics; organisations such as the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions and the UWI’s TLIU have tried to gather information but without conspicuous success and without being able to update it regularly. If there were a regionally responsible agency to monitor and accredit tertiary provision, it could be mandated to provide publicly accessible data on enrolments, graduation rates, costs, and various other data, besides providing access to its review reports. Such data could then feed into national and regional planning exercises. 64 10 - Perspectives of new providers and impact on quality, price, coverage and certification Although some of the external providers we have enumerated are public institutions in their homelands, their presence in the Caribbean is not a matter of the disinterested distribution of sweetness and light. They are in the Caribbean to make money, either directly from their students or indirectly from developmental agencies. Their activities, then, are virtually restricted to those areas in which there is money to be made. These are areas where there is a significant unsatisfied demand or which are perceived as vital by national governments. The likely and actual consequence of these market-driven activities is that we find much tertiary level training and very little that contributes to a liberal education. MBAs a- plenty, informatics, pre-clinical medical sciences; but it is only the London External programme that offers History, Classics, or Geography. The pure sciences and mathematics are conspicuous by their absence, equally the humane studies. Again, speaking generally, the new external provision is a matter of teaching, with no grounding in scholarship or research. The institutions are teaching institutions; they do not pride themselves on research work. (It is fitting to note the exception of St George’s University here.) And the teaching is a matter of reproduction, not innovative reconceptualising of earlier positions. It was claimed earlier that much thinking remains unaware of the new conditions of the tertiary education world. But obviously there have been effects to be seen, certainly within UWI. There is a lot more talk now about “student friendliness” and a growing realisation that UWI no longer has a monopoly in key areas. We hear contrasts made between how external providers run distance education and how UWI mismanages it; how others encourage on-line registration while it still makes people queue. UWI is more open, at least at the level of top management, to articulation with national colleges, since it is realised that such colleges can get easier deals with external providers. 65 One might then say that UWI’s vision has changed in response to these new pressures, but its practice often remains unaffected. In other ways, one might consider that UWI has become too infected with the market-oriented thinking that the new external providers bring with them. The previous Strategic Plan required all researchers to undertake a certain amount of teaching. A review of the Mona Campus seriously considers more aggressive marketing of a Metaphysics course and the outsourcing of Philosophy of Science.59 These are nonsensical suggestions, given the nature of the courses and the distribution of the relevant expertise in Jamaica. It is difficult to judge whether the new providers have had any impact on the quality of academic work. As far as UWI’s own MBA teaching goes, its providers have always been aware of the competition and responsive to it. In other fields like Education and Law, the impression given is that UWI is blithely unconcerned with the wider world. But one might cite the shared programmes in Hospitality and Tourism Management that UWI has worked out with various other colleges as a response to unsatisfied demand that would sooner or later prompt interventions from outside. The more significant impact on quality would be a diminution in overall standards, if it could be demonstrated. The UWI has been premised upon the UK's ‘A’ level plus three years for a Bachelors’ degree. Increasingly there are pressures in the region for students to pursue a two year Associate Degree followed by two more years for a Bachelor’s. On the face of it, one would expect such a degree to be less demanding than the traditional approach, and perhaps as a consequence there to be lower expectations for further post- graduate degrees. Certainly there is anecdotal evidence of this sort: one is told that teachers who have gone through the 2+2 route cannot teach ‘A’ level classes as readily as those who have acquired a UWI degree. But this sort of evidence does not cut much ice. Employers are not usually concerned about a person’s capacity to pass on esoteric knowledge. 59 Recommendations contained in Priorities for Immediate Rationalization at University of the West Indies (Mona) to Realise Financial Gains to Fund Programs, Trevor Hamilton and Associates, March 2003. 66 The UWI has responded to perceived needs to some extent — this was the rationale for the CDB-funded expansion of its distance education provision. The sorry story of UWI’s supposed conversion to “dual mode” is too long to be told here, but it reveals the extent to which the actual decisions taken at the University fail to be responsive to what it knows are regional needs. So far, almost the only major programme on offer in the distance mode is a BSc in Management Studies. Other providers offer EMBAs, IT programmes, Education, tourism. It is not that the relevant departments do not know the needs, indeed they often make use of some sort of distance education provision themselves,60 but in general they have not refocussed their energies on these approaches. The Caribbean is not alone on finding tertiary education more and more difficult to fund from the public purse. We have noted that external providers charge realistic fees for their services, and obviously find persons willing to pay them. There is a real danger that governments will allow the shape of tertiary education to slip from their control, or from the UWI’s control on their behalf, into a purely market-driven free-for-all. This is a danger since the quality of civil society and the level of debate it sustains is a function, not of demand-driven training, but of the more disinterested pursuit of understanding one associates with the humanities and the pure sciences. 60 The Institute of Education has just begun an on-line Masters in Educational Administration, catalysed by the TLIU; the UWI tourism unit in the Bahamas is offering on-line courses. 67 11 - Role of ICT in activities of new providers The survey in section 2 reveals that there is a very considerable role for the Internet in what is being done by external providers. Some virtual universities have set themselves up here, rather like the virtual casinos that are registered in the region. Many other institutions, even when expecting to see students for at least part of their programme, are relying very heavily on Internet materials, some on more traditional distance education materials. There are programmes that utilise videoconferencing and sometimes audio- conferencing. It is traditional to think that there is some Caribbean cultural preference for face-to-face interaction and for group learning rather than isolated self-instruction. It has certainly been difficult to wean UWI Distance Education Centre students away from extensive teleconferences and substantial tutorial inputs. There is some reason to think that other providers have found similar pressures. Many of them continue to rely on intensive weekend sessions or summer schools to provide face-to-face interaction. Strong circumstantial evidence for this claim is provided by the numbers enrolled as External London students. Where study is definitely individual, numbers are modest (Jamaica gets to 199, Barbados has 87, but none of the others go above 60) but in Trinidad, where a number of institutions provide more traditional class-room instruction for these same degrees, the numbers are over 2,000. It is not perhaps surprising but still worth noting that the new providers are in general much better represented in cyberspace than the government-sponsored national and regional institutions. Galen University has a website before it has any students. The UWI still thinks of recruitment as a matter of reaching secondary school students at school, when most of them will have access to the Internet and when a very significant portion of its intake is over 35 years of age. Notoriously, St George’s University advertised during television coverage of cricket matches. 68 69 12 - Discussion of role of trade in education services and local agenda for negotiations for GATS Discussion within the UWI has been extremely limited. The Tertiary Level Institutions’ Unit’s most recent annual retreat involved consideration of the GATS negotiations and recommended that the UWI take an active role in leading public and governmental opinion in the region. So far the Vice-Chancellor has written to governments on the matter. Some discussions have been taking place within the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery on education and training as tradable services. As of June 2003, only Trinidad and Tobago has commitments for "Lecturers at the Tertiary level" but only cross border (mode 1), consumption abroad (mode 2) and temporary entry (mode 4) are open. Commercial presence (mode 3 - establishment of a firm) to provide such services is unbound. Temporary entry is conditional on registration and certification requirements. Jamaica has commitments in Primary, Secondary and Higher education for modes 1, 2 & 3 (with certification and registration requirements for mode 3) but mode 4 is unbound. It cannot be said that consultation on these issues between education institutions or between governments and the private sectors is effectively facilitated by any mechanism. Public discussion, such as it is, is typically uninformed and liable to assume that predatory capitalists in the developed world are seeking to destroy what vestiges of local culture and idiosyncratic mores may remain. The actual provisions of the WTO and the actual proposals of those countries seeking negotiations on tertiary education are not common knowledge.61 CARICOM countries have so far not made extensive commitments themselves, less, it would seem, than their current practice would support. 61 That this ignorance is widespread elsewhere is the burden of Pierre Sauvé, “Trade, Education and the GATS: What’s in, What’s out, What’s all the fuss about?” at http://www.oecd.org/pdf/M00029000/M00029613.pdf. 70 On the one hand, we have another example of the difficulties facing micro-states in coping with the real world. On another, we have a lost opportunity to confront the very real and difficult question of what roles the state should play in the provision and regulation of tertiary and continuing education. Of course, serious discussion of that question is also hampered by the separateness of CARICOM’s membership and its lack of enforceable joint decision-making. But, given the increasing role of private providers, any such debate or forum for the exploration of public policy must somehow involve not only the traditional ministries of education and national institutions but also the private education sector and representatives of employers of all types, although, as suggested earlier, this is not to be taken as endorsing a purely market- and demand-driven configuration for tertiary education. 71 13 – Recommendations IESALC asks for proposals for “the definition of public policies concerning the new providers in the Caribbean”. From the point of view of the public, it is difficult to separate policies for external providers from the wider set of questions about the provision of tertiary education. There is obviously a great unfulfilled demand for post-secondary education and training and there are several factors that contribute to it. One is the quality of secondary schooling, which too often leaves people without the entry qualifications required for normal progress into tertiary education. Another is a matter of geography and the distribution of post-secondary facilities. In such circumstances, people benefit from a wider range of options and from institutions that are prepared to offer “access” courses or to take less qualified students. Here governments might on the one hand encourage their national institutions to look more widely, and encourage liaison with the sort of work some branches of the UWI’s School of Continuing Studies have been doing. On the other, they should consider regulatory and facilitating mechanisms to encourage certain sorts of private participation, both local and foreign, in tertiary and continuing education. In this connection, a more decisive stance with respect to GATS, now or in the future, might be of some value, provided it is informed by the results of genuine consultation with the widest relevant publics. Such public deliberation on the whole issue of tertiary education policy across the region is therefore a further recommendation one should make. While demand is great, the public also deserves assurance that it is getting value for its money, either paid directly or in taxes that maintain national institutions. This is an area of shameful neglect in the region, both with respect to accreditation and, perhaps to a lesser extent, quality assurance. One obvious external check on standards of provision is being abandoned as Colleges move from ‘A’ levels or CAPE to home-grown Associate Degrees. However effective its internal quality assurance mechanism might in fact be, no 72 member of the public has any direct access to the reports on quality that are made, and so little reason to think that the regional University takes them seriously. As we have seen, as far as accreditation goes, only in Jamaica, and to some extent in Trinidad, is a responsible, albeit voluntary, process of accreditation in place, but these too only make public their positive decisions, not the data supporting them. The region therefore needs a comprehensive and public quality assurance and accreditation system for the whole range of tertiary education, not just for medicine. Such a system should require all providers to be reviewed. The region benefits from “off-shore” education, but it should be concerned that that education also meets internationally acceptable standards — everyone is affected if the region is better known for degree mills and money laundering than for education and legitimate finance. But even if such a system were created, it would not be able to do much about distance education that is not organised on the ground locally. Here it would seem that an international regime is required, whereby Internet and other distance education providers can be assessed once and for all for the whole world, either by the quality assurance body in their home territory or by an independent international agency. One concomitant benefit of an effective regional accreditation agency would be the central public (i.e. Internet) availability of data on the actual operations of the various players in the tertiary education market. If all players are required to register annually they can be required to submit whatever data is deemed desirable for monitoring and for responsible planning of educational provision. 73 Appendix: List of abbreviations AAIMG American Association of International Medical Graduates ACCA Association of Chartered Certified Accountants AISOM American International School of Medicine AUC American University of the Caribbean AUCC Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada BBA Bachelor of Business Administration BEd Bachelor of Education BIMAP Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity BSc Bachelor of Science BSN Bachelor of Science in Nursing CAHSU Central America Health Sciences University CAPE Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations CARICOM Caribbean Community CCDESP Canadian Caribbean Distance Education Scholarship Programme CEO Chief Education Officer CETA Caribbean Evangelical Theological Association CNAA Council for National Academic Awards CNTC Caribbean Nazarene Theological College COBEC Consortium for Belize Educational Co-operation CORD Committee on the Recognition of Degrees COU Commonwealth Open University CSB/SJU College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University CUC Caribbean Union College EMBA Executive Master of Business Administration FAMU Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University GATS General Agreement on Trade in Services GC&SU Georgia College and State University HLSCC H. Lavity Stoutt Community College HRM Human Resource Management 74 ICT Information and Computer Technology IESALC International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean IFM Institute for Financial Management IGNOU Indira Gandhi National Open University IT Information Technology ITT Institute of Tertiary Tutors IUHS International University of Health Sciences LLB Bachelor of Laws MA Master of Arts MBA Master of Business Administration MBBS Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Med Master of Education MIES Modi Innovative Education Society MSc Master of Science MSN Master of Science in Nursing MSSC Missouri Southern State College MSVU Mount St Vincent University MUA Medical University of the Americas NCC National Computing Centre NCU Northern Caribbean University NIHERST National Institute of Higher Education Research, Science and Technology NSU Nova Southeastern University QAA Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education RDI Resource Development International SAM School of Accounting and Management SBCS School of Business and Computer Science SEMS Surrey European Management School SGU St George’s University SHM School of Health Management, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences SJC St Joseph’s College 75 SMU St Matthews’ University TAMCC T.A. Marryshow Community College TLIU Tertiary-Level Institutions’ Unit UB State University of New York at Buffalo UCJ University Council of Jamaica UHSA University of Health Sciences Antigua UK United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland UN United Nations UNB University of New Brunswick UNO University of New Orleans US or USA United States of America USF University of South Florida UVI University of the Virgin Islands UWI University of the West Indies UWIDEC University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre WHO World Health Organisation WIU Wisconsin International University WTO World Trade Organisation 76 INDEX Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial A Advisors · 11 Canadian Caribbean Distance Education Scholarship Programme · 19, 20 A.T. Still University of Health Sciences · 13 Capitol Business Solutions - 22 ACCA · 22, 23, 25, 31 Caribbean Consulting Group · 22 Accountancy Trainers · 22 Caribbean Graduate School of Theology · 22 American Association of International Medical Caribbean Institute of Language & Business · 23 Graduates · 16, 34 Caribbean Nazarene Theological College · 23, 27, 37 American International School of Medicine · 17, 34 Caribbean School of Business & Management - 22 American Management Association · 11 Caribbean Union College · 11, 23, 24, 27, 29 American University of the Caribbean · 17, 34 Carnegie Mellon University · 7 Andrews University · 11 Cayman Islands Law School · 9 Anglia Polytechnic University · 21, 31 Central America Health Sciences University · 12, 13 Arkansas Tech University · 9 Central Connecticut State University · 9 Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize · 7 Church Teachers’ College · 10, 37 Athabasca University · 19 Cipriani College of Labour & Co-operative Studies · Atlantic College · 6, 21, 37 23 Atlantic College and Theological Seminary · 6, 21 Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College · 18 Automation Technology College · 23 Codrington College · 7 College of Accountants Training · 22 B College of Agriculture, Science and Education · 10 College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University · B & B Institute of Business · 22 5 Bahamas Baptist Community College · 22 College of the Bahamas · 6, 21 Barbados Community College · 7 Colorado State University · 7 Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity · Columbia Union University · 18, 41 7, 22 Commonwealth Open University · 18 Barry University · 6, 15, 36 Complete Technology Solutions · 23 Belize Teachers’ Training College · 8 Consortium for Belize Educational Co-operation · 7, Benedictine University College · 5, 22 26, 28 Bermuda College · 15 Corozal Junior College · 7 Berne University · 18 Corporate Business Institute · 22 Bethel Bible College · 22 Bethlehem Teachers’ Colleges · 10 D C Dalhousie University · 21, 29 Dental Auxiliary School · 22 Cable & Wireless Virtual Academy · 12 Drexel University · 11 Cambridge Tutors College · 15 Durham Business School · 7, 40 77 E Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators · 7 East Carolina University · 7 Institute of Computer Technology · 22 Educational Videoconferencing Inc · 9 Institute of Law and Academic Studies · 23 Ernst & Young Caribbean · 7 Institute of Management & Production · 12, 22 Institute of Management Sciences · 10, 22 Institute of Tertiary Tutors · 23, 27 F Institute of Training and Development Limited · 23 Intercollege · 17 Ferris State University · 26, 34 International College of the Cayman Islands · 9 Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University · 6 International University of Health Sciences · 15, 16 Florida International University · 10 Fort Valley State University · 7 J G Jamaica Constabulary Staff College · 12 Jamaica Institute of Bankers · 10, 22, 37 Galen University · 17, 24, 33, 41, 46 Jamaica Theological Seminary · 22 Georgia College and State University · 7 Jamaican Institute of Management · 22 Grace University School of Medicine · 12, 13 K H Kennesaw State University · 7 H. Lavity Stoutt Community College · 8, 9, 31, 33 Kent State University · 6 Henley Management College · 21, 40 Heriot-Watt University · 20 Herman Marcano & Assoc. Ltd · 23 L Hillsborough Community College · 7 Hocking College · 8 Liberal Arts College of Jamaica · 22 Liverpool John Moores University · 21 London Guildhall University · 21 I London Medical College · 15 Luther Rice Seminary & Bible College · 37 ICS Learning Systems · 23 IGNOU - 19 Individual Systems Ltd · 22 M Infoserv Institute of Technology · 22 Institute for Financial Management · 10, 31 Manchester Business School · 10 Institute for Theological & Leadership Development · McHari Institute · 18 22 Medical University of the Americas · 13, 15, 16, 34, Institute of Banking & Finance · 23 42 Memorial University of Newfoundland · 20 Metal Industries Company · 23 78 Metropolitan Community College · 7 S Mico Teachers' College · 10 MIES · 15, 16 Saba University School of Medicine · 17, 34 Missouri Southern State College · 9 Sacred Heart Junior College · 8 Monroe College · 11 Saint Augustine’s College · 9 Mount St. Vincent University · 10, 20, 29, 31, 35 Sam Sharpe Teachers' College · 9, 10 Muffles Junior College · 8 Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic · 7 Murray State University · 8 San Pedro Junior College · 8 School for International Training · 8 N School of Accounting and Management · 20, 23, 27, 35 National Research & Development Foundation · 21, School of Business and Computer Science · 20, 21, 23, 22 27 NCC Education · 21, 35 SHM · 13 New England Culinary Institute · 8 Shortwood Teachers' College · 10 New Jersey Institute of Technology · 15 Software Training Centre · 22 New Mexico State University · 8 Southern Alberta Institute of Technology · 11 Northern Alberta Institute of Technology · 11 Spartan Health Sciences University · 16, 34 Northern Caribbean University · 22, 24 St Clements University · 19 Nova Southeastern University · 5, 10, 37, 41 St George’s · 5, 14, 16, 24, 27, 33, 44 St George’s University · 5, 14, 15, 16, 34, 44, 46 St James School of Medicine · 17 O St John's College Junior College · 8 St Joseph’s Teachers' College· 10 Oklahoma State University · 8 St Joseph's College · 14 Omardeen School of Accounting · 23 St Luke’s University School of Medicine · 13 Oxford Brookes University - 22 St Martinus University · 17 St Matthew’s University School of Medicine · 13, 14, P 17 Stann Creek Ecumenical Junior College · 8 Prestige Accounting Bookshop and Accountancy State University of New York at Buffalo · 9 College - 22 State University of New York, Cortland · 8 Professional School of Accountancy Ltd · 23 Students Accountancy Centre · 23 Success Training College · 22 Surrey European Management School · 7, 31 R Resource Development International · 21 T Ross University · 14, 15, 16, 34, 42 ROYTEC · 11, 12, 23, 31 T.A. Marryshow Community College · 14, 27 Temple University · 10 The Catholic College of Mandeville · 22 79 The Jamaica Open College · 22 University of Portsmouth · 20, 31 The Professional Institute of Marketing and Business University of Sheffield · 11, 21, 41 Studies · 21, 23 University of South Florida · 8, 10, 29, 31, 37 The University of East London · 15 University of St Thomas · 21 The University of Northumbria · 15 University of Sunderland · 21 The University of Nottingham · 15 University of Surrey · 7 The West Indies School of Theology · 23 University of Technology · 10 Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Technology · 11, 12 University of the Virgin Islands · 8, 24, 29, 31 Turks and Caicos Community College · 11 University of the West Indies · 3, 4, 7, 12, 14, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 40, 42, 44, 45, U 46, 47, 48 University of Vermont · 8 University of Wales at Bangor · 10 United States Sports Academy · 17 University of Wisconsin · 7 Universal Empire Institute of Medical Sciences · 15 University of Wolverhampton - 21, 32 University Council of Jamaica · 22, 36, 39 UWIDEC · 19, 20, 28 University of New Brunswick · 11, 31 University of Belize · 8, 36 University of Bristol · 8 V University of Cambridge - 22 University of Durham · 7 Valdosta State University · 8 University of Greenwich · 21 Vector Technology Institute · 22 University of Guyana · 3 Viterbo University · 8 University of Havana · 10 University of Hawaii at Hilo · 8 W University of Health Sciences Antigua · 12, 18 University of Leicester · 21 Western Kentucky University · 8 University of Liverpool · 9 Wilberforce · 11, 31 University of London · 21, 23, 28, 41, 44, 46 Wilfrid Laurier University · 11 University of Miami · 6, 29 Windsor University · 15, 16 University of New Orleans · 6, 31, 37, 40 Wisconsin International University · 18 University of North Florida · 8 Wright State University · 8, 31 University of Phoenix · 16 80