This Day In History:

October 4 marks 75 years since the start of The UWI’s first class

October 4 is significant for The University of the West Indies (The UWI) as it marks 75 years since the official opening of its inaugural Campus in Mona, Jamaica. On this day in 1948, The UWI (then called the University College of the West Indies) held its first class for 33 medical students—a chemistry lecture by Professor Dr. Cedric Hassall.

This Friday, scores of UWI Mona staff, students and alumni will roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty! Team members will be deployed across the 653-acre campus to plant 75 saplings to symbolically mark each year of the Institution's existence.

A Marketer, Entomologist, Ophthalmologist and Data Science Expert are among the newest Professors at The University of the West Indies (The UWI). The University’s Office of Administration is pleased to announce the promotion of nine academics to its highest rank: ‘Professor’.

 
Orville Deluke Daley, a first-year student in the Faculty of Science and Technology, is the 2023/2024 top matriculant for The UWI, Mona Campus. Orville secured a full UWI Open scholarship when he matriculated to the number one ranked University in the Caribbean with 10 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, and 13 Cape Units — 12 with straight A-profiles.

Caricom has been designated as the sixth region of the African continent. The region commemorated the second annual Africa-CARICOM Day on September 7, signaling an ongoing commitment to strengthened relationships between the two populations.

Fourteen eminent persons are to receive honorary degrees from The University of the West Indies (The UWI) during its upcoming Class of 2023 graduation ceremonies, starting October 7.

The annual tradition of conferring honorary degrees, which coincides this year with the regional university’s 75^th jubilee celebrations will commemorate the outstanding contributions made by these individuals to their communities and the wider society.

The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, in collaboration with the VM Group, is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated launch of, ‘The UWI Mona VM Group Distinguished Lecture Series’. The series aims to provide a platform, through thought-leadership, for insightful discussions, intellectual discourse, and the exchange of ideas to nurture change on local, regional and global scales.

September 7, 2023, marks two years since the first CARICOM Africa Union (AU) Summit, hosted by Kenya. The first Summit of Heads decided to establish for celebration, September 7 of every year as Africa-Caricom Day. The P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Public Advocacy strongly supports the opportunity it presents for activities geared at greater African and Caribbean unity.   

The UWI marks the celebration with hybrid public forum and cultural dress day

Thursday, September 7, 2023 will mark Africa-CARICOM Day. This is in keeping with a 2021 decision taken at the Inaugural Africa-CARICOM Summit for an annual acknowledgement to signal an ongoing commitment to strengthened relationships. The pace of initiatives to strengthen Africa-CARICOM’s cooperation has quickened, following the Summit, in areas of strategic importance to the both regions. Among the initiatives, an official day of observance, celebrating their formalised unity.

The Latin American-Caribbean Centre (LACC) of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) hosted an inaugural regional dialogue on the impact of climate change on mental health on August 23.