Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES
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Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES A selection of student achievements and Campus initiatives since December 2013 Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES Equipped to successfully pursue employment whether in industry or academia. The local, regional and global arts industry benefits from the talent And skill of graduates like Clish Gittens, who completed his BA in Fine Arts at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination. Gittens’ thesis project, a 20-minute documentary entitled “H20”, has been screened in 11 countries on 4 continents and across the region. It was awarded the prize for ‘Best Short Film’ at the 2017 Barbados Independent Film Festival. This followed Gittens’ success at the 2016 Piton International Film Festival in St. Lucia (Recognition Award), the 2015 Handle Climate Change Film Festival in China (Silver Award) and the 2015 edition of Barbados’ National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (Silver courtesy CHILL Magazine Award and the Ministry of the Environment Special Award). March 2016 Chadwick Walton, a graduate of the Campus’ Academy of Sport, was selected for the West Indies senior cricket team’s December 2014 tour to South Africa. He is the first West Indies cricketer to graduate with an MSc in Sports Science from UWI Cave Hill. Fellow student, Jason Holder, was selected to captain the West Indies One-Day team against South Africa and also assumed the captaincy of the West Indies team on its 2015 tour to Sri Lanka. Carlos Brathwaite, who is currently pursuing the Academy’s Certificate in Management and Administration of Sport, serves as the West Indies T20 Captain. Graduates of the Faculty of Science and Technology’s Centre for Resource Management & Environmental Studies (CERMES) have been making valued contributions to industry and the academy. In 2016, Danielle Bachew (class of 2015) was invited to present a paper on her research at the 69th Proceedings of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute Conference held in Grand Cayman. Usha Satnarain (class of 2012) was selected to be part of the One Health Leadership Series and now works as a Research Assistant in Sustainable Management of Natural Resources at the University of Suriname. In 2016, Douglas Brown (class of 2014) published a paper in Water Resources Management Journal based on his research project on climate change. He is employed as an Air Quality Manager at Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES The Campus designs its academic programmes to keep pace with national and regional needs as well as international standards for higher education. From September 2016, the Faculty of Science & Technology of the Cave Hill Campus began offering a new Bachelor of Science Degree in Software Engineering. The four-year programme, which was simultaneously introduced at the Mona Campus, was developed in collaboration with the Global Institute of Software Engineering (GIST) in Suzhou, China in recognition of growing global demand for skills in this field. Students pursuing this new degree spend their first two years at a UWI Campus in the Caribbean and the final two in China. Upon graduation, they are guaranteed a paid six-month internship at courtesy a Fortune 500 company in Suzhou Industrial Park, China. uwi.edu/softwareengineering In 2013-14, the Faculty of Law expanded the range of courses on offer to its students with the introduction of two blended learning courses (delivered face-to-face and via the Internet) – Introduction to Offshore Law and Caribbean Securities Regulation. The Faculty of Medical Sciences introduced a Bachelor of Health Sciences programme and welcomed the first cohort of students in September 2015. The programme offers a welcome option for students who do not want to work as physicians but have an interest in the health sector (e.g. careers in health promotion, administration and para-clinical services). Students can select from four concentrations in the areas of (1) Community Health, (2) Humanities/Biomedicine, Ethics & Society, (3) Healthcare Administration & Management and (4) Nutrition and Society. Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES In 2016, the Faculty of Social Sciences began offering its Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Management. The programme was developed as a direct response to the needs of the Training Administration Division of the Government of Barbados, which commissioned the UWI to design a programme that would expose its mid-level public officers to contemporary, international government-to-business and business-to-government practices, along with pertinent management theories. The seven-course programme was developed by the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management. Students examine the relationships across the public and private sectors, trade unions and civil society and explore opportunities to develop innovative solutions that address the challenges of modern government practice. The Campus offers guidance and support for students’ decisions about their study options. In Semester 2, 2015-16, the Faculty of Social Sciences introduced a new academic advisement system to support its students in re-establishing good academic standing. The Faculty instituted academic holds on the accounts of all students on academic warning, requiring them to speak to an academic advisor based at its newly- established Student Advisory Centre before registering online for courses in the new semester. During registration week (January 11 – 15, 2016), lecturers offered students academic counselling, including referrals to appropriate Faculty and Campus support services and specific recommendations for remedial action. While this specific initiative targeted students on academic warning, each student was encouraged to meet with his/her assigned academic advisor regardless of academic standing. As the Faculty of Science & Technology continued its programme of conversion and renewal of its suite of programmes during 2016, staff hosted two ‘Town Hall’ sessions in August 2016 to offer guidance and support to students. Students were updated on the impact of revisions within the Biological Sciences Programmes for 2016/17 and beyond. Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES The Campus provides guidance on and insists upon academic integrity. During 2014-15, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning developed guidelines for lecturers on the administration of online assessments, as this mode of evaluation is increasingly employed in university courses. The guidelines are available through eLearning, the Campus’ online Learning Management System. They assist faculty in implementing strategies to deter cheating during assessments of this type. Visit the eLearning Information & Resources Hub for Faculty for more details (staff login required). courtesy elearning Information & Resources Hub for Faculty The Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning developed a Student Academic Skills Hub, which became available to students through the Campus’ eLearning site in 2015-16. The Hub provides guidance on Academic Integrity, including links to Campus policies and videos on interpreting reports produced by Turnitin text-checking software. Visit the Student Academic Skills Hub for more details (student login required). courtesy Lycoming College Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES The Campus recognizes and makes provision for students’ differences as learners The Campus adopted a Student Disability Policy in January 2014. Among other things, the Policy establishes the Campus’ commitment to ensuring that students with disabilities “enjoy the same level of access to all aspects of University life, as their fellow students, without fear of disadvantage or discrimination.” The Policy has been implemented through a procedure for making accommodations for students with disabilities, which was approved in May 2015. Such accommodations are coordinated by the Office of Student Services, working in collaboration with the student’s Dean and lecturers and other members of staff. View the Policy here: https://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/studentservices/support- services/disabilities/files/student-disability-policy.aspx The Campus uses information and communications technology to enhance teaching and learning In 2013-14, the Faculty of Law expanded the range of courses on offer to its students with the introduction of two blended learning courses (delivered face-to- face and via the Internet) - Introduction to Offshore Law and Caribbean Securities Regulation. Producing QUALIFIED GRADUATES In June 2014, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) hosted its annual Teaching and Technology Summer Institute, led by Prof John Sandars of Leeds University, UK. Lecturers participated in a series of interactive workshops designed to equip them with skills to support students who struggle in the academic environment and encourage self-regulated learning, including through the application of technology. The Summer Institute, launched in June 2010, has evolved into ‘Teaching and Learning Week - Symposium and Summer Institute’, a highly anticipated annual event on the CETL’s faculty development calendar. courtesy CETL The Campus promotes the development of research skills as part of course activities. The Campus provides opportunities for students to develop and strengthen their skills as researchers, including competence in research planning, analysis, problem- solving and presentation. Courses such as “Caribbean Intellectual Traditions”, which was first offered by the Department of Cultural Studies (Faculty of Humanities & Education)