Page 3 - UWI QUALITY CIRCLE Vol.19 May 2017

Student Success and the New Strategic Plan
BY PROF. ALAN COBLEY
PRO VICE-CHANCELLOR BOARD FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
The theme of this edition of The UWI Quality Circle - ‘Student Success: from Recruitment to Graduation’ - is very timely, coming as it does at a moment when we are poised to implement the University’s new Strategic Plan 2017-2022. One of the three central themes of the new Plan is ‘Access’. Improved access to tertiary education is not only a concern for The University of the West Indies: it is also a critical element of the CARICOM Human Resource Development 2030 Strategy and Action Plan. The University is therefore proposing to increase student enrolment substantially over the lifetime of its Strategic Plan.
However, admitting more students to our University is only part of the challenge we face. We need to put measures in place to ensure that once admitted, all our students have the opportunity not only to survive but also to thrive at the University. The support needed will range from improved screening of students on admission to identify those needing special support - whether academic or otherwise - to better tracking of students while in the system to ensure that those at risk of dropping out are identi ed and given the help they need to succeed. One of the key indicators of success in these initiatives will be an increase in enrolment coupled with a decline in the student drop-out rate over the next ve years.
While student retention will be a major focus, we intend to go further. We will strive to improve not only the quantity but also the quality of our graduates, measuring our success by improved employment rates and employer satisfaction scores. Ultimately, we wish to see the same culture of continuous improvement that is at the heart of our quality assurance system applied to the process of student learning, thereby assisting our students in their journey towards self-actualisation, and our Caribbean societies towards their goal of sustainable social and economic development.
To coordinate these efforts, the Of ce of the Board for Undergraduate Studies has identi ed ‘Student Retention and Success’ as one of the three major strategic initiatives it will implement during the lifetime of the current UWI Strategic Plan, and we will be asking the Quality Assurance Unit to further align our QA review processes to support it. I hope the discussion in this issue of The UWI Quality Circle will help to bring the challenges into focus, and also help to crystallise some of the key interventions that will be needed to address them.
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