Enrolment at the University of West Indies (UWI), Mona for the 2005-2006 academic year now stands at just over 15,000 students.
This represents a four per cent increase in registration for last year and a 13 per cent increase over the period 2003/2004 to 2005/2006.
The enrolment figures were presented at the meeting of the Mona Campus Council, held recently.
Campus Council was told that since 2003/2004, the Mona campus has surpassed the targeted 2.4 per cent annual growth in on-campus enrolment as specified in the strategic plan.
By the end of the plan period 2006/2007, the university hopes to expand enrolment in distance education programmes by 5,000 students and to increase the proportion of students from non-campus countries, also known as the UWI 12.
SATISFYING HR NEEDS
As part of its efforts to satisfy the human resource needs of Jamaica and the Caribbean, the Mona campus has introduced a number of new programmes aimed at satisfying the needs of the private and public sectors.
The focus of the new programmes has been in health, education, environmental science, foreign language studies, computer science and information technology.
A report presented to the recent meeting of the Mona Campus Council noted that over the last three years, Mona had graduated more than 700 individuals who had specialised in nursing, public health, family medicine, and mental health disciplines.
More than 1,000 persons had obtained qualifications for teaching in primary and secondary schools, specialising in areas such as mathematics education, science education, educational administration, special education and early childhood education.
The campus has also produced a significant number of graduates in the areas of environmental science, actuarial science and foreign language studies.
MIGRATION CONFERENCE
The UWI Migration Study Group is pleased to announce a conference on 'Caribbean Migra-tion: Forced and Free', scheduled to take place on the Mona campus on June 13 and 14.
Abstracts (approximately 250 words) of proposed papers are now invited. Full papers will be required just prior to the conference. The final date for receipt of abstracts is March 31. A list of the proposed themes is attached.
This conference will immediately precede a conference on the diaspora being organised by Jamaica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in association with the UWI (June 15-16). It is anticipated that the linkages between the themes of the two conferences will enrich both.
Communication about the conference and abstracts should be sent to either of the following email addresses:
migration.conference@uwimona.edu.jm, caribbeanmigration@yahoo.com.
UCC
DISTANCE EDUCATION
Dr. Mernoush Banton of Florida International University (FIU) and Florida Atlantic University (FAU) will deliver the inaugural lecture in the University of the Caribbean's (UCC) historic distance education Associate degree programme in business administration on Sunday, March 26.
The lecture will be aired live on CVM-TV and Jamaica News Network TV from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., respectively.
The lecture 'Introduction to Business' will form part of the trail-blazing initiative by the UCC to utilise an hybrid model consisting of wireless subscriber and free-to-air television and traditional classroom teaching methods in the delivery of higher education, making tertiary education easily accessible in the home and the workplace.
Dr. Banton's lecture is the first in the series of distance education and global learning lectures that will be delivered via both free-to-air and wireless subscriber television.
She is a distinguished professor of business administration at the FIU and FAU. She possesses a doctorate in business administration and has over 10 years' experience in corporate finance/accounting, management and strategy formulation and implementation.
