UWI Scholarship Honours Former Pro Vice – Chancellors

McIntyre/Nettleford Award

img:(l-r) Senator Mark Golding, an Oxford graduate; Donovan Walker, Partner, Hart, Muirhead & Fatta, Attorneys-at-Law; Lady McIntyre, wife of Sir Alister McIntyre and Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies with the cheque for US$35,000 donated by Oxford graduate and Attorney-at-Law, Hugh Hart, to the McIntyre/Nettleford Scholarship Fund. — (l-r) Senator Mark Golding, an Oxford graduate; Donovan Walker, Partner, Hart, Muirhead & Fatta, Attorneys-at-Law; Lady McIntyre, wife of Sir Alister McIntyre and Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies with the cheque for US$35,000 donated by Oxford graduate and Attorney-at-Law, Hugh Hart, to the McIntyre/Nettleford Scholarship Fund.

THE University of the West Indies (UWI) has established a new scholarship fund for high-achieving youth from disenfranchised backgrounds.

The scholarship was launched at a luncheon at Terra Nova Hotel in Jamaica. Professor Louise Richardson, the first female Vice-Chancellor of the 800-year-old Oxford University, was the featured speaker.

The scholarship will cover all costs for an undergraduate degree at The UWI, and will be maintained through an endowment fund, in which the investment income will support the scholarship awards.

The fund honours two of The UWI’s former Vice-Chancellors, Sir Alister McIntyre, and the late Professor Rex Nettleford who are both among a list of distinguished Caribbean nationals who graduated from Oxford University.

Professor Richardson congratulated The UWI on the establishment of the scholarship. Noting that The UWI is just 68 years old, she said “an investment in an endowment for scholarships today, will have grown exponentially by the time The UWI celebrates its centenary—many lives will be transformed in the process.”

Speaking at the luncheon, themed The Ethical University: Poverty Must Fall: Empowering Marginalized Communities, Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles explained that the scholarship fund “recognises the importance of making an educational experience accessible to our most promising young scholars.” He added, “The scholarship celebrates the history of connectedness between Oxford and The UWI.”

Also speaking at the event was Mariame Robinson, President and CEO of First Global Bank which sponsored the luncheon. She recounted her “transformative and truly enjoyable” experience at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in the ’90s and reminded guests that “the norms and access we have today come from other shoulders that we are standing on from prior generations.”

Oxford alumni, Hugh Hart, O.J., Attorney at Law and Roderick Rainford, former Secretary-General of CARICOM, were also in attendance and presented pledges as early donors towards the scholarship.