With an eye toward increasing its student body – and a long-term goal of offering all programs online – University of the Virgin Islands officials announced last week the school will enter a five year memorandum of understanding with two Caribbean community colleges.
Students at Anguilla Community College and H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, which has campuses on Tortola and Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, will be able to enroll at UVI and be active UVI students even while physically studying at their respective campuses, according to Haldane Davies, special assistant to UVI President David Hall.
As part of the agreement, UVI will receive classroom and office space at both colleges to establish a physical presence for undergraduate and graduate students who cannot attend classes on either UVI campus. Students will also be able to access UVI classes via video conference and can receive UVI credit for non-UVI classes as well, Davies explained.
“We will have classrooms and offices at both ACC and HLSCC and we have a video conference room already in place which we can link in using the technology wherever,” said Davies. “Part of the understanding is that we can give UVI credit for classes taken at the other colleges.”
Additionally, qualified ACC and HLSCC faculty will be considered for adjunct faculty roles with UVI, where suitable, as a means of reducing cost and building capacity among faculty, according to Davies.
The agreement also allows students to easily transfer to UVI from ACC or HLSCC and it even waives application fees for prospective students.
“These MOUs create a clearer and smoother transition for students from both institutions to UVI,” said Davies. “I think the situation is a win-win for everyone. We gain in that we would attract more students, increase our enrollment and expand our UVI brand across the Caribbean.”
“This is also an opportunity for more individuals to have access to higher education as a result of UVI having a presence in their particular area,” he said. “The aim, as we grow in the world, is that we have more people with access to quality higher education. With this agreement, more students will have the opportunity to study there and also to come study at our campuses on St. Thomas and St. Croix.”
Under the MOU, UVI students will easily be able to study abroad at ACC or HLSCC.
“Primarily students from those locations may come here but they may have certain specialized programs and if there are students in our jurisdiction who have interests in their specialty, for example the disaster management program at HLSCC, that would be a great opportunity” Davies said.
The MOU will also offer UVI students and faculty the chance to interact with students from different islands and collaborate on research, Davies added.
“This provides more opportunities for our students at UVI,” he said. “To be able to interact with students from another place gives them that added experience as they grow their education. The USVI and BVI also share a lot of history and culture; from a UVI standpoint it’s Virgin Islands Caribbean history,” said Davies. “We will collaborate on a number of historical and genealogical studies that will make us all better informed as to who we are as a people and where we came from and give us a better appreciation for that.”
ACC and HLSCC will also collaborate with UVI on projects and research in areas of alternative energy, entrepreneurship, conservation and fisheries, educational and psychological research pertaining to social issues, risk management, disaster management, faculty and student exchange, institutional and student learning outcomes assessment, health disparities, nurturing and preservation of Virgin Islands history culture, inter-institution lecture series, performing arts, and sports.
These academic collaborations might even foster closer government relations, as the MOUs were reached by working closely with BVI, Anguillan and USVI government officials, Davies said.
“Another of the key things about these agreements is that they were signed with government understanding,” he said. “These agreements did not happen in a bubble. We’ve been at this for some time and we expect this will lead to further collaborations between our governments and organizations.”
According to the agreement, a midterm review of the MOUs will be conducted after two and one-half years to determine what adjustments may be necessary.
The agreements were hailed by the heads of both ACC and HLSCC last week as well.
HLSCC President Dr. Karl Dawson said, “The MOU between UVI and HLSCC cements a long-standing, mutually-beneficial relationship that has resulted in various types of exchanges through the years and regular transition of HLSCC students to UVI. This agreement holds great promise as collaboration is now even more important in our shrinking world, and who better to work with than our closest neighbors.”
ACC President Dr. Delroy Louden said, “This partnership is an important and necessary step in creating new opportunities for students and faculty from both UVI and ACC to engage in continuous learning and development. This MOU will enable the ACC to access and strengthen the infrastructure of program offerings to our students through current technology which enables students to further studies with UVI while remaining in Anguilla.”
UVI President Dr. David Hall announced the MOUs at the June meeting of the UVI Board of Trustees.
