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.