The University of the West Indies has four campuses - Cave Hill, Barbados; Mona, Jamaica; St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago and the Open Campus. 

The Mona Campus in Jamaica is the oldest of the four university campuses and was established in 1948 as a College of the University of London with an enrolment of 33 students.  The institution gained full University status in 1962. 

The Cave Hill Campus in Barbados began in 1963 as the College of Arts & Sciences at the Bridgetown Harbour.  In 1967, the College moved to its present site at Cave Hill.  With the establishment of the Faculty of Law in 1970, the name of the college was changed to the Cave Hill Campus of The University of the West Indies. 

The St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago originated from the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture.  In 1960 the College was incorporated into The University of the West Indies as the Faculty of Agriculture. 

The Open Campus, the newest of the four campuses, was formally launched in Antigua & Barbuda in June 2008.   It is an amalgamation of the previous Office of the Board for Non-Campus Countries & Distance Education (BNNCDE), the School of Continuing Studies (SCS), the UWI Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC), and the Tertiary Level Institutions Unit (TLIU).

Supported by sixteen countries, all current or former colonies of Great Britain, as well as the Turks and Caicos, the UWI is committed to the development of the region through the training of its human resources, conducting research, delivering advisory services to governments as well as to the private sector and forging links with other institutions in the wider region and the rest of the world.

Knowledge creation, as well as knowledge application in biotechnology, information technology, tropical medicine and chronic diseases, inter alia, is acknowledged as traditional strengths of the UWI. We have committed ourselves to expanding on these as well as delving into new and important areas such as health economics and Health issues arising from certain chronic diseases with the HIV/AIDS pandemic being a major concern for the region. We recognise that our research capacity is a most important asset that must be supported and promoted because our graduate research students do form the core of the region’s future research capability.

The University of the West Indies currently has a total enrolment of over 39,000 students and graduates annually approximately 5,800 students (at undergraduate, graduate and diploma levels)