A Message from
The UWI Open Campus Pro Vice-Chancellor & Principal (Interim)
to the
Barbados Accreditation Council
World Quality Week (WQW) 2021
As The UWI Open Campus joins in the celebration of World Quality Week 2021, I wish to use this opportunity as its Principal to highlight and congratulate the Barbados Accreditation Council (BAC) for their service over the years in fostering academic quality through accreditation in Barbados with positive implications for beyond its boundaries.
At The University of the West Indies, we are committed to excellence in teaching, research, innovation, public service, intellectual leadership, outreach, governance and administration. This would require us to adhere to high standards, and practise effective quality management, hence the importance of accreditation which helps the University to maintain best practices.
Accreditation bodies play a very critical role in the life of an academic institution. Not only does the accreditation process empower the institution to constantly evaluate and improve their operations but it also assists students in determining which institutions are acceptable, thereby increasing their trust and confidence in the holder of their educational journey. Institutions such as the Barbados Accreditation Council safeguard and protect the interest of the people, both directly and indirectly.
The Open Campus understands the importance of providing our students with quality learning experiences and the need to continually provide our stakeholders with quality service. This we achieve by maintaining standards but also relying on assessment and evaluations to ensure that we are fit for purpose.
The theme chosen for World Quality Week 2021 – Sustainability: improving our products, people and planet, underscores the urgency of the practice and attribute of sustainability in every sector of our livelihoods. Furthermore, the accent and focus by the WQW 2021 campaign on the role of quality in sustainability and its bearing on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, is very relevant and must be a priority on our agendas.
The University of the West Indies as a whole, and the Open Campus in particular, ought to have a fiduciary duty to its host community—the Pan-Caribbean—to champion the goal of quality in its products and services, and, by extension, its numerous graduates, who in turn must exponentially reproduce their positive impacts on society in their myriad disciplines. This means that if we do not actively monitor and ensure that quality pervades our organizational culture then we would unwittingly be compromising the ideal of sustainability.
As a Campus of The UWI, our continued existence relies on the services provided by agencies such as the Barbados Accreditation Council – our collaborators in education, which we have utmost respect and appreciation for.
We wish to salute the management and staff of the Barbados Accreditation Council as the Champions of Quality for your dedication, commitment and contribution to the development of higher education in Barbados and our Region through your excellent and exceptional quality assurance services.
May the blessings of God be upon you.
Dr. Francis Severin
