The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE Union of Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas and the University of The Bahamas are working to address several “red flags” raised by accreditation evaluators, with most of the issues already resolved, union officials say.

UTEB president Daniel Thompson said the concerns were flagged by the accrediting body and required corrective action by the university. He said only about two matters remain outstanding.

“The accrediting body, they said they saw some of what we call red flags. As a result of those red flags, the university needed to address those matters. So those matters are what we are now addressing. We have addressed most of them. There about two of them still outstanding, and we are making headway on resolving those matters,” he said.

One issue involved differences between the British and American education systems that created credentialing concerns. British PhDs typically focus on several years of research without coursework, unlike American PhDs, which may include coursework components.

Mr Thompson said the union and the university provided external evaluations to confirm degree equivalency.

“We couldn't just super impose a North American centric system on The Bahamas, where many of our graduates, many of our instructors, are educated in the British system,” he said. “Those are the type of red flags that existed.”

“We were able to mitigate all of those red flags. Consequently, there were one or two that still existed, and we had to go back and provide the justification. We're not questioning the person's qualification. We're just looking at their alignment with a particular area.”

Mr Thompson also said the union is in discussions with the university over the role of the Academic Senate.

Under the University of The Bahamas Act (2016), union executives are barred from serving on the Academic Senate, even if they are qualified faculty members. As a result, professors who hold union leadership roles cannot participate in Senate governance.

Union representatives argue that this creates a conflict, particularly as the Academic Senate seeks to develop policies affecting employees’ terms and conditions of employment, which they say are governed by an industrial agreement.

“An Academic Senate, an entity of the university, cannot discuss or engage in negotiating or designing any policy that affect terms and conditions of employment when they are expressly given in our industrial agreement, and so we have cautioned the university to stop, desist, and stop your Senate from engaging in that type of business,” he said.

“Furthermore, why should me, as a faculty, support an entity that I am not a part of to make a decision on how I am promoted, how my salary scale happens, how I am made permanent, ludicrous.”

Mr Thompson said the union is open to resolving the matter, including amending the University Act to allow union executives to serve on the Academic Senate.