Dr. Luz M. Longsworth
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal
Welcome to The UWI Open Campus Institutional Accreditation website. In 2010, the then Principal Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald welcomed visitors to the Accreditation Website. After a successful review in 2012, the Open Campus was granted Institutional Accreditation by the Barbados Accreditation Council (BAC) for six (6) years ending on the 17th June, 2019.
Seventy (70) years ago in 1948, The University College of the West Indies was established, through Royal Charter, as a College of the University of London. In 1962, The University of the West Indies was granted independent status and a new Royal Charter which bestowed on it the right to grant and confer degrees and other academic distinctions. The University is a member of several regional and international bodies, including the Association of Commonwealth Universities. The Open Campus of the University was conceptualised as part of The UWI Strategic Planning process for the period 2007-2012. The Campus was officially launched in 2008 with a special mandate to increase access and provide opportunities for students, particularly outside of the traditional physical campus countries of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, through the delivery of online and continuing education programmes. It was felt that the Open Campus was best placed to meet the educational needs of the underserved communities within the Caribbean.
Eight years ago, as a precocious two year old Campus, the Open Campus embarked on its accreditation journey with a desire to showcase its quality management systems and its integrity. We were sure, even at such an early stage, that due to The UWI’s strong history and commitment to quality and quality assurance, that we would be prepared for the scrutiny of an external peer assessment through the institutional accreditation mechanism. The UWI’s quality culture, plus our own success at Registration with the BAC, in 2009 when we were visited by an internationally composed team of peer reviewers, was more than enough for us to be determined that we, as a Campus, had what it took to be successful in our accreditation efforts.
Now as we celebrate our milestone tenth anniversary, we the Open Campus are once again opening ourselves to external scrutiny as we commence our re-accreditation efforts. As we reflect on our achievements and growth over the past six (6) years, we are heartened by the many opportunities which the Campus has provided for Caribbean people to access life-long learning. In this self-study period, we will demonstrate how we have enhanced our processes and services to better serve our students and we will show how we continue to open doors to life-long learning.
It is with much pleasure that I personally invite you to participate actively in the re-accreditation efforts as we seek to showcase our theme “Opening Doors to Life-Long Learning”. We welcome your feedback through the comments facility on the website and I thank you in advance for your valuable contributions to this process.
