‘Untie our hands’

Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Sir Hilary Beckles is pleading with regional governments that own lands on which the UWI operates to give it to the university to enable the institution to access funding for further development.

Speaking at The UWI’s annual council meeting yesterday, Sir Hilary pleaded, “All we’re asking now is to untie our hands. Transfer these lands on which we operate to the university freehold so we can have that asset value on our balance sheet.”

The UWI operates from five countries in the Caribbean and relies heavily on state and other sources of funding.

In recent years, government subventions have fallen below 50 per cent and since the start of 2025, support from USAID has been cut off by the Trump administration. The UWI now has to find 50 per cent of its operational cost, moving forward, he outlined.

This amount was not given but Sir Hilary disclosed that the university is seeking between US$35 million and US$40 million a year in research grants, as the institution seeks to broaden its scope from a mere teaching university. Currently, research grants to the university range between US$20 million and US$25 million, leaving the institution to aggressively search for makeup funds.

However, it doesn’t mean that all funding to The UWI is drying up as there are multiple donors, including the European Union, which Sir Hilary acknowledged is the largest single source of research funds to The UWI. In addition, he said the institution relies heavily on the UWI Alumni Global, which stages galas in New York in the US, Toronto in Canada and, since last year, in London, England, to raise funding.

The university also has factories that are geared at providing funding to its operation. However, owning land would be a huge boost to its assets and propel the university to another level.

He said that, for the last 77 years, The UWI has been leasing lands on which it operates, even though the cost is nominal. But compared to land grant universities, for example Cornell in the US, where Sir Hilary also holds the post of distinguished professor in residence, The UWI is lagging behind in operational funding.

Said Sir Hilary: “All of those universities in North America that you look at and celebrate, we say look at them, look at the endowments they have, look at their assets, their cash flow, universities that are so rich, universities that can stand up to the government and say, ‘No, you cannot do that’; those universities have the resources and why? Because they are what we call land grant universities; when they were established, the governments gave them the land to own as an asset on which they operate and more.”

Sir Hilary said Cornell, which has about 25,000 students enrolled, owns more than 80,000 acres of land that was given to it by the government.

“That is the land which is an asset on their balance sheet; that is their leverage to develop commercial products; they have an industrial park where manufacturers are doing all sorts of things on their land and paying rent; they enter into partnerships to develop commercial zones, retail zones; in partnership with investors and that profit and revenue is coming back, they are leveraging; and that is one university. There are many, many others. Land rich universities; that is how those universities prosper.”

He continued: “So here we are. All we’re asking is for our governments to untie our hands, untie our feet. We have done the heavy lifting, we have taken this university from a small, little college to a global, elite university as proof of our responsibility, as proof of our intergenerational leadership. We have demonstrated evidence, overwhelmingly, that we can manage our affairs. All we’re asking now is to untie our hands; transfer these lands on which we operate to the university freehold so we can have that asset value on our balance sheet, we can go to the banks and we can go to the private sector and we can enter into commercial operations and we have some collateral to create a diversity of financial arrangements for our long-term sustainability.”

Sir Hilary said the university is at a crossroads and has written to all the governments asking them for the lands.

“We have written to all of the governments asking them to please consider the transfer of these campus lands to the university freehold. We’re not asking the government to just transfer it and walk away; transfer it in such a way that if you are insecure about whatever we do with those lands, we will enter into a mechanism where the governments will be at the table.

“Untie our hands, let us now enter into this phase so that we can join our North American colleagues in planning the next stage of our financial future,” Sir Hilary urged.

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