Pereira

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Joseph Pereira, wants the Jamaican Government to channel the scarce education dollar to state-run tertiary institutions capable of delivering particular programmes most efficiently and discontinue funding less-effective counterparts.

"The more we could have a rationalising of the state institutions as to who does what - because there is so much to be done in the development of university education - I think the better it would be," Pereira suggested during a recent Gleaner Editors' Forum on the financing of tertiary education.

Inefficient and inequitable

He was responding to criticisms by a University of Technology (UTech) spokesman that the current method of allocating state subsidy to tertiary institutions was inefficient and inequitable.

"It is for this reason we have been pushing over the years for per-student-per-programme funding as the best way of levelling the playing field, because when you give block amounts to any institution, you can't justify fairness in that fashion," argued Dr Kofi Nkrumah-Young, vice-president of planning and operation at UTech.

In addition to two universities, the Government finances, to varying degrees, an islandwide network of tertiary institutions that offer a range of programmes, including teacher education, agriculture, physical education and nursing education.

Value for money

While Pereira contends that rationalisation of the delivery of programmes is the best way to achieve equity in the distribution of state funds for higher education, he is not opposed to student-based funding, provided it is to state institutions.

"I do not think it is reasonable for taxpayer money to be provided to support private institutions. The Government of Jamaica and the governments of the region have invested heavily in the University of the West Indies, and in the University of Technology; they have put in a lot of money," Pereira reasoned. "You can provide the funds to the students to make a selection, but it can't be the same for private institutions as state institutions," he added.

However, the operator of the privately run University College of the Caribbean (UCC) disagrees.

"We believe, in terms of financing, that our students should have similar access to financing," Winston Adams, executive chairman of UCC, told Gleaner editors. "We believe that increased access should be made available to students pursuing courses at private institutions," he added.

Adams acknowledged that it would be difficult for the Government to subsidise private tertiary institutions at this time, but noted that this was done successfully in other Caribbean and Latin American territories. He also disclosed that students at UCC had limited access to the services of the Students' Loan Bureau.

byron.buckley@gleanerjm.com