UG Vice Chancellor prepared to invest in staff upgrade

Jul 04, 2017 News

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-says his experiences and credibility makes him suitable to restore institution

A large number of lecturers at the University of Guyana [UG], the country’s national university,

are rendering a service to that institution without the adequate credentials. This state of affairs was amplified following a consultancy conducted by the Trevor Hamilton and Associates firm of Jamaica in 2012.
But years later, the quality of lecturers still remains a neglected aspect of the institution. When asked about this situation during a recent interview, UG Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith, assured this publication that moves are apace to address this shortcoming.
“We have begun partnership conversations with several different universities and we have begun partnership conversations with several different Embassies through the High Commissioners and Ambassadors here to be able to send people abroad for training,” Professor Griffith shared. But according to him, the University will not only be looking at the academic side of things since there are other staffers who also require advanced qualifications, such as Masters Degrees and doctorates, in order to be more efficient in their respective roles at the University.
“We have a lot of people who have not been given help with professional development. Whether you are in the Bursary, whether you are an Assistant Dean…We do an injustice to our Deans and Department Heads because we just leave them with an appointment and ‘say do it’. We give them no guidance, no professional development, no way to help them,” related Professor Griffith as he shared plans to change the existing dilemma.
But even as he attempts to remedy this glaring situation, the Vice Chancellor predicts that there is likely to be some forthcoming criticisms. “Maybe people are going to criticise me but I will be investing money to train our people. We have got to find a way. Some of it will be bringing people here, some of it will be doing webinars; some of it will be sending people abroad because we have got to broaden their horizons and broaden their view,” said Professor Griffith. According to the Vice Chancellor, “There is too much small, closed-perimeter thinking. So that is a challenge.” Moreover, he informed that addressing this challenge is not expected to be a quick fix. “It is going to take a series of years to get there but we have to do what I call human capital investment,” said the Vice Chancellor.
Taking this course of action is important if UG is to be restored to the status of an outstanding tertiary institution.

TRACK RECORD
A university is in part about teaching and it is also in part about research. Professor Griffith, in response to a question about the suitability of his track record to help restore the image of the institution, said, “it is a combination of my personal breadth of experiences and the and credibility and respect that I have developed over the decades in various parts of the world that allows me not to feel that I can but to know that I can restore this University.”
“I have the breadth of teaching, the breadth of research, the experiences of being a Professor, a Budget Dean, a Dean, a Provost of two different universities, the President of another University and a Consultant experienced in a variety of places around the world,” said Vice Chancellor Griffith of himself.
But he did not stop there. “I have a network internationally, including the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and in Europe and Latin America,” said Professor Griffith as he asserted, “all of those things allowed me to not only lend my talent but to call upon my network which is what I have been doing since I have been here.”
The Vice Chancellor made it clear that his network is not limited to overseas territories as he also has ready support right here in Guyana which has already started to manifest itself both financially and otherwise.
He anticipates that support in this regard will be considerably augmented when the University hosts its inaugural Diaspora Engagement Conference later this month.
“I have a network of friends and connections here, some of whom I haven’t seen for years, some of whom are not even alumni of this university,” said Professor Griffith as he asserted, “it is not only the experiences abroad, it is having a network that I can call upon to do things that Government can’t do and the government should not only have to do things for the national university…We have got to find a way to get alumni to give support too.”
It was in order to ensure that support would be readily forthcoming to the University, Professor Griffith said that he made an informed decision to introduce a University Ambassadors programme when he accepted the position of Vice Chancellor.
“When I came here last year June, I brought 45 friends from around the world, mostly from North America and the Caribbean, and some from right here too. The ones from abroad, 45 of them came, each of them paid their own way, many of them are not graduates of the University of Guyana but because of me and because of the confidence in me, because of my track record they have said I want to help,” confided Vice Chancellor Griffith.

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