By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
DURING a lengthy ceremony yesterday full of pomp and pageantry, the country celebrated a milestone as the University of The Bahamas was chartered at the Thomas A Robinson stadium.
Men, women and children of all ages were dressed in blue to mark the historic occasion.
Lecturers beamed, emphasising that the moment was overdue.
Leading officials expressed pride and relief and spoke of the expansion and growth that will define the institution’s future.
Students also cheered the milestone, celebrating the fact that their college experience will coincide with what is expected to be a robust period of expansion.
“This day has been long in coming,” Prime Minister Perry Christie said. “It has been in incubation for many a long year. But it has at last arrived.”
Mr Christie said the country will look to UB to play an important role in national affairs.
“Students must have the proper facilities to work in and this should include a modern, state-of-the art performing arts theatre; a musical conservatory; and ample studio space,” he said. “The nation will increasingly be looking to the University of The Bahamas to provide the public with a robust and active arts calendar. There is growing appetite for more musical concerts, dance performances, plays, poetry recitals, book readings, and art shows, to meet our need for these finer pleasures. The civilising effect that such experiences can have on the nation should not be underestimated.”
He added: “The university must be a place of relevance within both the national and global contexts. It is, therefore, critical that (the) university not only respond to national needs but also engage the country in meaningful discussions. The university must continue to have a voice in matters of national and global importance.”
For his part, UB President Dr Rodney Smith said the university will become both a centre of excellence and an economic source of development.
“It is our hope to establish a medical campus, in the near future, that will house our schools of nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy and applied health professions,” he said. “It will have a medical clinic as well as a fully functioning pharmacy. This facility will serve as the foundation for the University’s School of Medicine.”
Similarly, Dr Smith spoke of manufacturing, engineering and entrepreneurial studies focus in Grand Bahama, an anthropology, oceanography and geology focus in San Salvador and a sustainable development focus in Exuma and Eleuthera.
UB is in the process of acquiring globally recognised accreditations.
It is seeking accreditations through the National Accreditation and Equivalency Council of the Bahamas, America’s Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the European Union, the United Kingdom and others.
Key development projects for UB are already underway. The university has, for instance, signed contracts in a $100 million project to build a 1,000-bed, living and learning residential facility “that will include a cafeteria, fitness facilities, swimming pool, study rooms, additional classrooms, retail spaces, a ball room and a parking deck,” according to Dr Smith.
It is expected that the institution, which critics say has long lacked sufficient money to fund expansion needs, will become a much greater recipient of funds now that its ties to the government has been cut.
Dr Smith previously told The Tribune he expects more than $500m to be spent over the next several years to fund construction projects, technological upgrades and infrastructural developments.
Comments
GrassRoot 7 years, 5 months ago
clap clap clap. and now? Same old wine in new barrels?
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 5 months ago
Sadly the average student in COB's graduating class 20 years ago was considerably better educated than the average student today who will graduate from UB in 2017. The serious problems we have with our public education system at the elementary and secondary levels should have been fixed before establishing UB. The foolish leadership of COB put the cart before the horse in establishing UB. Our D - high school graduates will not be able to compete on academic merit against foreign students for admission to UB. Ultimately the significant investment made in UB by Bahamian taxpayers will be taken over by UWI and will accrue to the benefit of students from other countries in our region who will return to their home country on graduation. We have some truly stupid individuals (who like to think of themselves as the creame de la creame of educators) who were and are still behind this costly UB initiative that is doomed to failure from the standpoint of ever benefiting the Bahamas.
Reality_Check 7 years, 5 months ago
The more likely outcome of this fiasco in the making is that the Bahamian government will decree that a high percentage of UB's admissions must be Bahamians who have received a D- education from our public elementary and secondary school systems. Once achievement based on academic merit is thrown out the window, better educated foreign students will quickly realise that obtaining a watered-down D- education from UB isn't worth the degree parchment it's written on.
MonkeeDoo 7 years, 5 months ago
Where will our UB gratuates work. What value will employers see in a UB sheepskin. Below UWI and that ain't saying a lot.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 5 months ago
A UB without an online core-courses programme for prospective first/second year Family Island students is counter-productive ........... The UB must appeal to ALL Bahamians
TalRussell 7 years, 5 months ago
by TalRussell
TalRussell 7 years, 5 months ago
Comrades! I guess this is as good as it gets for a excuse to showcase ya's fancy gowns, and hopefully not at taxpayers expense - including Dame Marguerite's fancy blue and white. Please tell taxpayers that this gown was not specially ordered overseas, from the Official Clothier To The Royals?
moncurcool 7 years, 5 months ago
Please tell me when did all those politicians in the front row with doctoral robes on earn a doctorate degree? That is an insult to an academia for people who earned their doctoral degrees to have these wannabe politicians in doctoral regalia.
afficianado 7 years, 5 months ago
I was thinking the same thing.. I'm offended
SP 7 years, 5 months ago
.......... They Failed As A College And Expected To Continue To Fail As A University ..........
This is a bad joke! They couldn't function as a college, how the hell can possibly function at university level? What will they do differently?
TalRussell 7 years, 5 months ago
Comrades! Telling signs your school ain't ready flip over to no University is when you lack the facilities at your school to hold the full of pomp and pageantry ceremony. You shouldn't have to celebrate the charter of a country's higher education milestone as a University by holding your ceremony at the Chinese donated Thomas A Robinson stadium. Comrades! a chartered status University consists of more than BS blue and white garbs, worn by equally BS High School politic establishment dropouts.
banker 7 years, 5 months ago
It looks like a bad Halloween costume parade. Worse than a lodge parade.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 5 months ago
Interesting colour choice for UB ............. gone back to the old school GHS hey?????? But that school was for the creme-de-la-creme (50 entries per year) ......... who and what is UB catering to???????
birdiestrachan 7 years, 5 months ago
IS IT TO HARD TO JUST WISH THEM WELL? every thing can not always be wrong.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 5 months ago
No Birdie ........ I am a COB alumnus ........ but why is it that the PLP allowed all the financial and personnel shit to go on at COB for four years and then have a big ceremony with pretty robes 6 months before elections?????? ............ and to add insult to injury, Perry bring back Mr. Plagie with a $400K salary?????? .......... but if it is ok with you, I understand
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