Against the background of universities as old as 600 and 700 years, as are the likes of Cambridge and the Sorbonne, the 60 years of existence of The University of the West Indies (UWI) might seem hardly worth noticing. To us, however, it is a significant testimony to the gritty determination and daring of the peoples of this part of the Americas, and whence they have come, to rise from their many pasts, forge a new sense of self and will themselves to the intellectual excellence for which, in that short space of time, the UWI, "a light rising from the west", as its motto translates, has become known. And, that is worthy not only of notice, but of celebration and reflection.

The truth is that the dreams that inspired the founders of the then University College of the West Indies are the same that brought forth West Indies cricket and led to the formation of the short-lived Federation, the Caribbean Free Trade Area, CARIFTA, the Caribbean Community, CARICOM, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Caribbean Examination Council, all of which have been at one time or another subject to the power of the centrifugal force of island-nationalism.

Little choice

Those dreams are that as small-island societies and economies, with similar histories and cultures, we maximise our chances and more effectively determine our fate in an often cold, hard-nosed world, if we hang together, rather than hang ourselves out to be hanged separately. That is why we support the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, notwithstanding its protracted implementation and other difficulties. In this irreversibly global world, we have few choices.

That the UWI, accountable to 15 countries, has managed to survive these 60 years is not due to any magic, but to the wisdom of regional leaders, who have understood these necessities. By formalising their commitment to preserving and supporting it in their Grand Anse Declaration of 1989, while also looking to the development of their own national universities and tertiary institutions to help fill their own needs, they seek to strike a balance between the exigency of regionalism and the demands of the nation state.

But the UWI would be well served not to be lulled into complacency by this or any other declaration, which is written with ink on paper, not cast in stone. It must utilise this milestone year more to reflect on its continued relevance than to become drunk on the past 60 years.

Tough issues

It is one thing to boast of having "produced" a Nobel Laureate, or to claim a role in a Nobel Prize, of which we too are proud, but quite another to provide the conditions to produce others; or, to boast of the many scientists, scholars and luminaries that have shone in the international firmament, but quite another thing to maintain the conditions that shaped their development.

In this respect, we have to ask the UWI, with its advantage of a research infrastructure, its teaching and outreach tradition and rank in relation to other universities, whether it can be as proud of those it is graduating these days as it evidently is of those who are streaming in this week from all over the world to celebrate. These are tough issues requiring tough answers, if the UWI is to prove its claim of being the region's premier tertiary institution. This, we submit, is the surest way to make its maiden century and to be counted as a truly great university.