UG plans to attract foreign students

The University of Guyana (UG) has outlined plans to attract foreign students and will be engaging governments of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) with a view to persuading them to send their nationals to Guyana to study.
Vice Chancellor Dr Jacob Opadeyi revealed that the OECS countries are without any university in their territories and on completion of high school; parents are worried about their children’s academic future.

“But we have a national institution and we must make it something that we are all proud of. There should be a certain pride of having a university in your community… Barbados came up with a concept of having at least one graduate in every family. One day, we should be able to make such a pronouncement. We are far from there because of limited resources, but can you imagine one day when we reach that stage?” Opadeyi said.
The vice chancellor disclosed that Nigeria produces 30,000 medical doctors annually, mostly for export purposes.
He noted that a country can never have too many graduates, adding that Guyana can reach the stage where almost everyone is educated and there are few to work at fast food restaurants and labour importation becomes necessary.
Developed countries such as the United States and Canada depend heavily on immigration to fulfill their employment needs in these areas.
However, Dr Opadeyi stressed that the vehicle for such development is the university of a country, and reiterated his intention to market the campus to overseas prospective students.
“My goal is to make this campus an inviting, pleasant place. We will be asking the private sector for park benches where persons can relax after work. People from the community can come, relax and enjoy the facilities,” the vice chancellor related.
Dr Opadeyi also plans to introduce concessionaries such as New Thriving, KFC and other fast food joints, postal service, a supermarket, pharmacy and automated teller machines (ATM) access points.
There will also be walkways that lead from one building to another to prevent persons from getting wet whenever it rains.
The vice chancellor said he is willing to raise funds to purchase musical instruments for the establishment of a UG musical band.
“They can go out to Main Street on Fridays and perform concerts for the public free of charge. Let people know the university students are also human beings who have a life outside of campus.” Dr Opadeyi will also be requisitioning for an ambulance with support from the private sector.
He has proposed the establishment of a daycare and student activity centre where students can drop off their children in order to attend classes without being worried.
“That’s the sort of life we want for students so they can relax and be able to concentrate on their studies,” Dr Opadeyi pointed out.
Reiterating his call for increased tuition, he stated that a higher quality education would mean more tuition and should translate to higher pay.
“It means that students must get value for money so that when they go out to the world of work, they can demand higher starting salaries due to the cost of their education. What is the true cost of providing free Internet to students if they pay the whole cost when they get home. We must stop paying the economic costs through subsidies because someone has got to pay for it,” Dr Opadeyi explained.
Each faculty has been given a mandate to conduct annual international conferences for the purpose of creating awareness about the university’s offerings and to gain an understanding of what obtains elsewhere.
In collaboration with the University of the West Indies, instructional development courses are expected to be established that would provide lecturers with updated knowledge on how to deliver lectures.The vice chancellor has also proposed a peer review system, which he said, is important to the department and would be beneficial to both lecturer and students.