Welcome Remarks by the Campus Principal, Professor Clement Sankat at the Launch of The Faculty of Law “In Recognition of the Faculty’s Establishment on August 1st 2013” Daaga Auditorium, UWI St. Augustine Campus Tuesday 15th April, 2014 6.30pm It is with great pride that I welcome all of you to this historic ceremony. It marks the realization of our vision; a vision to establish the 7th Faculty of The UWI St. Augustine Campus, the Faculty of Law. A vision that will support the protection of the fundamental rights of each and every citizen irrespective of race, creed, ethnicity, class, gender or religion. A vision that was rooted in both practical considerations of access and responsiveness and at the same time, a deep sense of honour and respect for the legal profession. Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, this evening’s ceremony is symbolic as the Faculty of Law became functional on August 1st, 2012. But as we commemorate the founding of this Faculty today, we also celebrate its achievements thus far, and we look to a very bright future! Before I continue, let me say that getting where we are today was at times challenging, but we persevered as a regional university and were able to find a meeting ground between principle and compromise. In this respect, I would like to single out Vice- Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris for his excellent leadership and for steering our ship well, even when the waters were choppy. I would also like to recognize and salute our sister Campus, Cave Hill for having produced outstanding LLB graduates for over 40 years. Many of these graduates have gone on to achieve great things in the legal profession, and right here in Trinidad and Tobago, there are no better examples than our President, His Excellency Anthony Carmona, S.C., our Prime Minister, the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar, S.C., and our Attorney General, Senator the Honourable Anand Ramlogan, S.C. We are extremely thankful for all that has been achieved in law through the steadfast efforts of the Cave Hill Campus, and the dedicated staff members who contributed to its success since its establishment in 1970. In the past three to four decades, The UWI has grown in leaps and bounds to be an institution today with approximately 45,000 students of which 19,000 are from the St. Augustine Campus, the largest Campus, in terms of student population. The University has therefore been pressed to provide increasing access to nationals, especially from their Campus territories. This has undoubtedly caused a major shift in how the university will meet the demands of both the national and regional governments for increased opportunities for higher education. To this end, the original concept of a single Faculty to serve all contributing territories in the region has had to be steadily modified to meet the growing demands for higher education. For instance, we began in 1948 in Mona with the Faculty of Medical Sciences, but eventually we had to meet the increasing demand in Trinidad and Tobago, and so came into being The UWI St. Augustine Campus in 1960; and so too in Barbados with Cave Hill in 1963; and to satisfy the demand of The UWI 12, the Open Campus was created in 2008. Our university has therefore been steadily evolving to meet the needs of the countries in our region. This could be extended to the Faculties – we began with the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Mona in 1948, but because of increasing demand we eventually had to establish the Faculty of Medical Sciences at St. Augustine in Mount Hope in 1989 and then at Cave Hill in 2008. And as I speak, there is movement at Mona for the development of undergraduate programmes in Engineering. In fact, there are several Engineering programmes which are already established in Mona, but this is all within the context that the Faculty of Engineering is a single Faculty within the university system, located at St. Augustine at inception in 1960. At this time, the only Faculty that seems to be singular within The UWI system is the Faculty of Food and Agriculture right here at The UWI St. Augustine Campus. In short ladies and gentlemen, the University has had no choice but to replicate itself in direct response to demand for increased access and affordable options for students from the region! This therefore brings me to the decision to establish the Faculty of Law at St. Augustine. Early in my career as Principal, in 2008, I realized that there was an overwhelming need to treat with the demand for places by nationals in Trinidad and Tobago for the LLB programme. And while I reiterate that the Faculty of Law at Cave Hill had served us very well, I wish to point out that the typical enrolment of nationals of Trinidad and Tobago in the LLB programme at Cave Hill stood at 40-50 students annually. These students are taken from a pool that exceeded 1,000 applicants, many of whom are well qualified. Ladies and gentlemen, this “demand- access” equation had to be addressed with urgency, which led our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Harris, to put together a Task Force of regional colleagues and Campus Principals to treat with this matter. The end result was that after considerable debate and deliberation (and for some of us with strong nostalgic perspectives about a single university faculty), we had to treat with the reality that if we were going to meet the huge demands for legal university education – we had to establish faculties at Mona and St. Augustine. In fact, Mona moved very quickly to establish their Faculty of Law in 2010-11. There was not much jubilation in what was done, but we all understood the circumstances which included the inability of many students to live and study outside of their home country, particularly given the financial challenges faced by economies of the region. Ladies and gentlemen, the rest is now history, and I am truly pleased to say that last October, The UWI St. Augustine Campus celebrated its first LLB graduates from our new Faculty of Law: 70 LLB graduates. And we have been steadily increasing the intake, and today, the Faculty of Law has 139 students in year one; 86 students in year two; and 99 students in year three. To get to this stage, we also had to build new facilities to accommodate more students and new staff. This included the Noor Hassanali Law Auditorium at St. Augustine. Together with the establishment of the Faculty of Law at The UWI St. Augustine Campus, came the vision for The UWI St. Augustine Campus to extend its reach beyond the St. Augustine environment and into South Trinidad, especially into the areas around the second largest city, San Fernando. And so, with the support of the regional University of the West Indies and its highest governing body, the Council of The University of the West Indies, and with the full support of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the Council agreed in 2011 to the establishment of The UWI St. Augustine South Campus – Penal-Debe, which is expected to be the home of our flagship Faculty of Law. This is a journey we have embarked upon for nearly three years with the signing of a contract to build the South Campus in August 2012. Although I would have liked to see much more work completed on this project to date, I must say that we are making steady progress. I should also add that the facilities we are building at our South Campus will be on par with those of leading universities across the world for the conduct of teaching, research and service to support legal education. In fact, the South Campus is located in an extremely beautiful, scenic and pristine environment that is conducive to scholarly pursuits. We are building a Faculty and physical facility that Trinidad and Tobago and the entire region must celebrate. It certainly has changed the face of The University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. As I close, let me say that the establishment of the Faculty of Law is the result of tremendous hard work, perseverance and commitment by a range of stakeholders. Today’s ceremony therefore comes with a deep feeling of gratitude. I therefore would once again like to thank our Chancellor, Sir George Alleyne and our Vice-Chancellor, Professor E. Nigel Harris and the Council of The University of the West Indies for approving this initiative to establish a Faculty of Law here in Trinidad at the St. Augustine Campus, but one that must continue to work in partnership, harmony and synergy with the other two Campuses at Cave Hill and Mona. One that will use technology to the fullest capability to ensure the movement of thoughts, ideas and knowledge between Campuses as opposed to simply moving people. We hope that this can be a model for others Faculties, so that they can re-engineer themselves to support a re-invigorated regional UWI where there is even more movement of knowledge and ideas. I would also like to thank the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, Sir Hilary Beckles for his cooperation and understanding in a matter that has truly challenged all of us. But let me say that St. Augustine’s engagement in Law did not happen just in the last three to four years, we have been teaching the LLB at the year 1 level for nearly 40 years. And so, I would also like to thank those who have laid the foundation for this expansion, including Mr.