Students face uncertain future

Apr 12, 2011 News

… UG mulls slashing Science degree programmes

By Leonard Gildarie
Several foreign students and more than 70 locals are facing uncertainty over a decision to slash a number of science programmes this year from the curriculum of the University of Guyana (UG).
UG officials have since said that the decision to slash the programmes has to do with costs. Many see it as unfair. The Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Turkeyen Campus, Dr. Emanuel Cummings, has written to the Minister of Education, Sheik Baksh, on the issue.
The subjects facing the axe are Optometry, Pharmacy and Rehabilitation Sciences. The three are being offered under Bachelor of Science programmes. Optometry is the only one that can be done under an Associate Degree programme.
Yesterday, Registrar of the University, Dr. Vincent Alexander, would only say that the matter is under consideration at the moment. Dr. Cummings also declined to comment.
According to the letter by the Dean to Minister Baksh, a decision was taken on March 28, last, by the UG management not to advertise the programmes for new students.
In that meeting were Vice Chancellor, Lawrence Carrington; Deputy Vice Chancellor, Marlyn Cox; Registrar, Vincent Alexander; Deputy Registrar, Dr. Theodosius Velloza; Bursar, Neil Browman and Dr. Cummings.
According to Dr Cummings in the letter, the decision would have serious consequences for the Faculty of Health and the Ministry of Health, and could lead to a shortage of human resources in the respective fields.
“With regards to the Optometry programme, there are six foreign students including one from Haiti who was given a scholarship as part of Guyana’s support to this earthquake-devastated island.”
“There are 49 students in the First Year for the Pharmacy Programme, 21 in the Bachelor of Science in Optometry, five in the Associate of Science Degree in Optometry and eight in the Bachelor of Science in Rehabilitation Sciences.
In the case of Optometry there are several foreign students, including scholarship students from Haiti.”
Cummings in his letter pointed out that faculty had presented a yearly fee of $127,000 to the Academic Policy and Planning (AP&P).
However, …”AP&P instructed the Faculty that before these programmes could be approved and forwarded to the Academic Board, they must first propose a new fee structure, hence the $250,000 fee.”
The letter also said that after these programmes were presented to the Academic Board of UG, there was a failure of the Registrar to take them to the Finance and General Purposes Committee (F&GP) for the approval of the new fee structure.
“Hence the Finance and General Purposes Committee (F&GP) was unaware of these programmes and as a consequence the Loan Agency could not have issued a loan to the students that were admitted to these programmes, especially since they were requesting a loan greater than $127,000.”
According to Dr Cummings, a number of new programmes from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the School of Education and Humanities (SHE) that were approved by the Academic Board after these new programmes from the Faculty of Health Sciences were approved at a fee structure of one $127, 000.
The Dean argued that while the University did not request a new fee structure for the new programmes, somehow UG was very forceful in the “introduction of a new fee structure with regards to the new programmes in the Faculty of Health Sciences.”
He said that there seems to be some amount of “inconsistency” with regards to the manner in which UG implements its fee structure for new programmes.
The letter was also sent to Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, several Cabinet members, UG’s Pro Chancellor, Dr Prem Misir, and the University of Guyana Student’s Society.

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