UG will change for the better under new Vice Chancellor

Apr 22, 2013 News

– new UGBC Director

By Leon Suseran

Professor Daizal Samad is confident that the University of Guyana (UG) will be changed for the better, especially under its new Vice- Chancellor (VC), Professor Jacob Opadeyi.
Samad, who has recently commenced serving his third consecutive term as the Director of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC), met last week with Professor Opadeyi at Turkeyen, where they put forth plans and decisions that will influence the future of both university campuses.
The University of Guyana, the country’s main tertiary institution, has been plagued with a plethora of problems from administrative to financial in recent years, but Samad is confident that the new VC has what it takes to turn that situation around.
“I have a very strong feeling that UG will finally change for the better,” he said.

Prof. Daizal Samad

The new VC, he stated, is different “because he is action and results-oriented, meaning that you will not sit there and talk forever; you must have solid outputs and action.”
Because of this, Samad strongly believes that the university “is flying” at this point. The new VC, he stated “is a man of conscience and our campus [UGBC] will see a new day again and I am very optimistic.”
A stronger administrative structure comprising of an Advisory Committee that includes the Director, private sector individuals and students, was also proposed at the meeting between Samad and Opadeyi.
“His [Prof. Opadeyi] thinking is also identical to mine that a university must be accountable to the society and must open up itself to Guyanese—and I am loving what the man has said because that is what we have done at UGBC over the past four years.”
The private sector, Samad added, will be re-engaged to have a greater influence in what happens at both campuses.
“We cannot keep running an institution that keeps depending on government money, so we have to find ways of generating our own income.”
Also on the cards is the establishment of an Information Technology room dedicated to teleconferencing so that Lecturers from both campuses can participate in meetings without having to travel back and forth.
It was proposed, too, that each academic division in the university should consist of a Student/Staff Liaison Committee, whose job it will be to report on matters and problems that are being faced on campus, in relation to courses, the registration process, grades and transcripts.
“So you know right away the kinds of problems happening and the kinds of ideas of improvement that they have.”
Professor Samad noted, too, that very shortly, an Agricultural International Conference comprising individuals of Trinidad, Suriname among other countries will be convened in Berbice.