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COB President Appeals for Re-Examination of Bahamas’ Economic Ranking at University Presidents Forum
By Office of Communication, The College of The Bahamas
Apr 12, 2015 - 4:32:46 PM

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The President of The College of The Bahamas Dr Rodney D. Smith has used a high-level gathering of university leaders of the Americas to implore the international community to re-consider how The Bahamas - an archipelagic nation - is disadvantaged in seeking international financial support based on its current economic ranking.

Dr. Smith brought The Bahamas’ plight to the attention of the first University Presidents Forum of the VII Summit of the Americas held in Panama City, Panama. He participated as a panelist at the forum organized to address “Prosperity and Education: the Challenge of Cooperation in the Americas”, with a specific focus on the role of universities.

“The country consists of 700 islands and 2,400 cays within an area of 5,358 sq. miles. There are just over 365,000 Bahamians spread across 30 inhabited islands….This geophysical archipelagic environment proves to be a major challenge, as we work towards developing and servicing the needs of the country,” he said.

“In addition to being faced with having to duplicate infrastructure on varying scales on all these islands, we find that the entire country tends to be ranked internationally as if each of the islands was economically the same," Dr. Smith explained.

According to President Smith, with about 6 million tourists visiting The Bahamas each year foreign investments, rather than average family income, tends to skew per capita income for the country; and thus its ranking as a high income country.

"This creates a disadvantage when it comes to seeking financial assistance through development grants and other sources of funding that could greatly improve the standard of living throughout the country; including access to higher education," Dr Smith pointed out.

The Government of the Republic of Panama invited President Smith to attend the university presidents forum. He joined a panel that included the presidents of the University of Panama, University of Havana, Georgetown University and the University of Mexico.

President Smith reasoned that The Bahamas’ best option for improving the standard of living for all of its inhabitants is to increase access to higher education while attracting back to the country those who have been educated abroad.

“The establishment of the University of The Bahamas as a vibrant and sustainable institution dedicated to teaching, research and service is that best option,” he said.

“However, it will require that international development agencies undertake the task of studying and redefining development characteristics of archipelagic nations. In our global society today, we respect and accept cultural differences; yet we neglect the fact that countries ranked similarly do not have the same economic and geophysical characteristics,” he added.

According to Dr. Smith, in order to grow a University that will be sustainable, significant support and funding assistance from regional and international institutions and agencies is needed, as well as expertise from established institutions of higher education.

The Minister of Education, Science and Technology Hon. Jerome Fitzgerald has affirmed that The College will transition to the University of The Bahamas by the end of 2015. In the meantime, consultations are underway on the draft University of The Bahamas Bill, a comprehensive COB Transformation Project to increase operational efficiencies has been launched and a blueprint for infrastructural growth is being followed.

President Smith has called for ingenuity in how the future University will address the educational needs of The Bahamas guided by separate, yet coordinated and integrated strategic plans.

“Gone are the days when we should focus on delivering duplicates of the same academic programme on several islands. It is time to develop Colleges with specialties on respective islands; while extending the outreach of academic degree programming via the online environment to all the islands of The Bahamas and abroad,” he said.

The university presidents forum focused specifically on academic mobility, leveraging technology and innovation to improve university education and research in the region, and using university-based research for enterprise and sustainable economic development.

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