Finally! Jamaican students who wish to pursue a degree in law can now do so by staying right here in the comfort of their own country, spending time with their families while achieving their educational goals. All this, without having to leave for a foreign territory only to be burdened by the exorbitant economic cost such a sojourn would incur for the students and their parents.

The University of Technology (UTech) must be commended for setting up a law faculty which will see the full complement of law courses being offered right here in Jamaica for the award of a bachelor of laws degree.

Kudos to the UTech; they have done what the University of the West Indies (UWI) should have done years ago. I strongly believe, however, that the UWI will now have to contemplate introducing the full three-year programme at its Mona campus. After all, a university operates much in the same way as a business does and in a business environment there is competition. How you fare among your competitors will impact on your bottom line and by extension, your economic viability.

Strong competition

There will no doubt be a competition between the UTech and the UWI to attract the best and brightest applicants for enrolment in their respective law faculties. Some of these potential applicants may be deterred from choosing the UWI because of the prohibitive economic costs associated with studying in a foreign country (Barbados), which is necessary to complete the second and third year of the UWI degree law programme.

With the current economic situation and the recent precipitous depreciation of the value of the Jamaican dollar, those students slated to travel to Barbados come September of this year will have to dig deeper into their pockets.

I am a proud student of the University of the West Indies and I only want to see the best for the institution. Nevertheless, the UWI must come to terms with the fact that gone are the days when they had a hegemony on tertiary education in Jamaica. We see colleges and other tertiary institutions popping up everywhere these days - offering degrees and diplomas in areas which were only taught at the UWI. The UWI, therefore, needs to throw off the yoke of bureaucracy, which seems to be strangling its ability to adapt to a new and dynamic tertiary-education landscape.

I am, etc.,

RAUN S. BARRET

raunbarrett@gmail.com

University of the West Indies