What is the UWI Open?

The University has an undergraduate and graduate population of 39,000 students scattered throughout the Caribbean  but the majority of the students are located on one of the three main campuses located in Mona in Jamaica, Cave Hill in Barbados, and St. Augustine in Trinidad & Tobago.  One of the primary aims of the University’s newest strategic plan is that its latest campus will be both virtual and real with physical locations available in all the countries that it serves.

The idea of an Open Campus of the University of the West Indies is based on the notion that all high-quality university education, research and services available at our institution should be open and available to all people who wish to reach their full potential inside and outside of the Caribbean region. 

How will it work?

The Open Campus will adopt diversified access routes, quality teaching and learning experiences, innovative pedagogic design, relevant research and community partnerships to deliver new ways of face to face, blended and online learning to all of its communities. The UWI Open Campus will therefore:

º Have a physical presence in each contributing country.

º Function as a network of real and virtual nodes to deliver education and training     to anyone with access to Internet facilities.

º Enhance its physical presence in each contributing country to permit the offer of    those programmes and  services that are more appropriately provided         face-to-face.

º Permit the blending of online and face-to-face learning experiences to enrich the   social apects of learning in a collegial environment.

How is the UWI Open Different?

Distinct from the UWI’s existing main campuses, the Open Campus will not have faculties such as medicine, law, humanities etc. Its structure will be determined not by academic disciplines, but by clustering the functions that it will require to fulfill its business. The major intellectual resources of the Open Campus will be sourced from the existing campuses of the UWI and from other sources as well.

The campus will use contemporary ICTs as a primary medium for the delivery of its programmes. Blended learning will be its characteristic delivery style. The ideal of "anywhere" and "anytime" access will drive the design of its programmes and management systems.

Our intention is that the functions currently executed by the existing outreach departments will continue to be fulfilled by the campus. However, the scope of the programmes on offer will be expanded to include more of the offerings available in the existing three campuses as well as totally new programmes created to meet needs identified in continuing consultation with stakeholders in the target clienteles.

History & Heritage

The Open Campus builds on the strong history of the three traditional outreach arms of the University - the School of Continuing Studies (SCS, the UWI Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC) and the Tertiary Level Institutions Unit (TLIU).