Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM
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Absent proposals from UG stall entry to Hugh Wooding – AG
A way forward on the automatic entry of Guyana’s top law students into the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) in Trinidad, is apparently being hindered by the University of Guyana (UG).
Attorney General
Basil Williams
For years, the top 25 UG law students benefited from automatic entry into the Trinidad law school. However, in more recent times, the automatic entry policy has been fraught with difficulties. In fact, it was unclear most recently what the position on the matter was.
Now, according to Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, the entire process is apparently being stalled by UG.
According to Williams, the issue with HWLS had been one of his top priorities. Hence, he set out upon finding out Guyana’s position with the school. However, he said, he could not find a file in the AG’s Chambers that spoke to an updated position on the issue.
Instead, he said, he had to write to the Council of Legal Education. He explained that the Council responded and intimated that there had been an agreement in 2013 that the top 25 students would automatically be accepted in 2014. However, there was no mention in the correspondence on the automatic entry of students in 2015.
Rather, he said, “What they spoke about is that there is an ongoing negotiation in relation to the collaborative agreement between UWI, UG and the Council of Legal Education. He suggested that a new proposal from the University of Guyana is what is stalling any consensus being reached.”
Williams said that he attempted to contact UG Vice Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi and the Dean of the Law Faculty to get a position on what exactly the proposals are. However, neither official could be reached.
He further said that there was no question on the availability of space. “There’s sufficient space for even 40 of our students.” He continued, “So this is something that we have to look into because as I said on previous occasions, it’s not good for you to be in your final year and you’re not sure whether you’ll get to complete your professional applications…
“So we’re seeking to establish some sort of permanency for the situation.”
Emphasising that the issue was an important one, Williams said that he would have to attend the Council’s upcoming meeting in September, “to really have a greater insight into what the situation is. That’s where I am; I’m trying to get information of the problem.”
Similarly, President of the Guyana Bar Association, Christopher Ram, agreed that the matter was a central one and needed to be dealt with expediently. At the time, Ram and other members of the Bar Association were meeting with the AG.
He explained that one area that was set to be discussed was the way forward in regard to the HWLS. Opining that the automatic entry policy was an “annual issue”, Ram said, “The profession always needs to renew itself and renew membership, so it’s important that we have new members coming out every year. It’s also important that we remove that uncertainty that always seem to characterize the Turkeyen Campus around this time of the year.”
In regard to the proposed law school here in Guyana, Ram said that the idea was still on the table although it was a “very major step”. He admitted that the project would require quite a bit of resources but would be beneficial to Guyana in the long run.
“It will take some time and some planning but I am very optimistic. I think we can make this into a very lucrative type of operation. We can in fact, become a center for the teaching of law in the Caribbean but it means we have to have lots of pieces into place,” Ram stressed. He further said that the Government of Guyana will have an integral role to play in the establishment of any such school by providing resources such as lands, building and human resources.
Meanwhile, AG Williams shared that he recently visited first year students of HWLS who expressed some of their problems. He explained that one of the main problems had been the sudden change in the school’s payment policy. Previously, students were allowed to pay a year’s tuition in increments.
However, this policy was updated and the students are now required to pay for the entire year upfront. Williams said that this amounted to US$11,000 at one time. He added that this was another issue that would have to be raised with the Council.
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