New Principal of the University of the West Indies Open Campus, Dr Luz Longsworth says lack of access to higher education is not only stymieing creativity and innovation, but is halting progress of brilliant entrepreneurs.
Quoting Chancellor at the University of the West Indies, Sir George Alleyne, during her induction ceremony in Belize, Dr Longsworth said there can be no economic growth without concomitant social growth. “We have to build floors for our people so that they don’t build walls of hopelessness,” she stated, borrowing from Freidman. Urging the university to capitalise on what she tagged a seminal moment, she described the current period as a time where the institution’s as a campus and as a university, with its full intellectual resources, hearts and minds, must come to the fore in forging a new day for the region, “infusing hope and vibrancy back into our societies across the region.”
Dr Longsworth who is also Pro-Vice Chancellor at the UWI, warned that they could be no slowing down as the only way to survive the rapids was to paddle faster and be ahead of them.
Committing herself and her team at the Open Campus to breaking the back of the challenges affecting education, the new Principal said, “We are prepared to serve and to lead, to be the glue that binds our excellent University, help to transform our region, revitalise our Caribbean and beyond, with access to the vast knowledge that we produce.”
Dr Longsworth said she and her team were committed to creating spaces in the communities for the University to intervene in developing young innovative minds, to work with governments, industries and other sister tertiary institutions.