CONGRATULATIONS to all those graduates of the University of the West Indies (Uwi)who proudly received their scrolls, certificates and awards at this year’s graduation ceremony.

My sincerest congratulations are extended to the University of the West Indies for 60 years of solid and sustained service to the human and economic resources of the region. Special congratulations are also extended to Sir Frederick Nathaniel Ballantyne and Prof Zelma Edgell on the conferment of honorary degrees by the University of the West Indies.

As an institution, the University of the West Indies can reflect on a tradition of excellence, out of which have sprung scholars and academics who have made their indelible mark on the region and the wider world.

To its eternal credit, many of its graduates have distinguished themselves as leaders. Indeed, seven of its 92 330 alumni have been prime ministers, one a Nobel laureate, and countless others have made outstanding contributions as doctors, lawyers, educators, engineers, agriculturalists, nurses, accountants and business managers.

As a proud UWI graduate myself, I remain impressed by the tradition of excellence which the ceremony reflected. It is commendable that in an age when we continually walk the tightrope between change and conservation, and everywhere even traditions of excellence are under intense pressure, the University of the West Indies can demonstrate a commitment to excellence without being apologetic about it.

It was evident in the atmosphere, in the ambiance, in the attention to detail, in the precision with which the ceremony was conducted and in the general adherence to high standards of dress and deportment. Most of all, it was evident in the diversity and quality of the academic society of graduates who received their scrolls, certificates and degrees.

The motto of the University of the West Indies is ’A Light Rising From The West’’. Against the backdrop is this insightful insignia, Chancellor of the University Sir George Alleyne spoke to the question of the UWI brand. In his address he called for a marketing and communication strategy to aggressively promote what he referred to as ’our brand’’. But what are the unique features of this ’brand’’?

Yes, the University of the West Indies is the premier higher education institution in the region, but what does the ’brand’’ signify? As our graduates move around the globe and distinguish themselves by their passion, competence and commitment, how do they distinguish themselves within that diverse global environment, given its hostility to small developing countries?

Sir George himself was indeed an excellent standard-bearer of that ’brand’’ with his outstanding contribution within the global community. It is critical that the features of the ’UWI brand’’ be clearly defined or else ’our brand’’ stands the risk of eluding the current crop of alumni, many of whom in spite of their excellent qualifications must now learn to apply the content of their academic programmes to ’resolve the obstacles that beset their island and regional societies’’.

Prof Edgell, the author of Beckalam, in her address, noted that the region is looking to its graduates for a new vision, like ’the light rising from the west’’. She alluded to the difficulties of small states and the need to rekindle our passions as we foster the spirit of self-determination.

In the final analysis, it is ’the UWI brand’’ that must be the driving force of the new hope through which we will find solutions to the problems that ensnare us.

On another level, ’the UWI brand’’, while having global relevance and capacity, must not lose its local and regional utility. For there is a sense in which our university, in spite of all the good work it has and continues to do, in some respects remains removed from ’the nooks and crannies’’ of our lives and from the many deep-seated problems which crave solutions of a kind that ’our brand’’ can best inspire.

While we deliberate the ’UWI brand’’, whatever you perceive it to be, it is my fear that there may exist a paradox between our university and the society which supports and sustains it so generously. Such a paradox was said to exist in Britain, where there once was ’a higher education system of considerable brilliance but a society sunk deeper in philistinism, suspicious of new ideas and scornful of rationality’’.

However we define the brand, it must be patented first and foremost, as having a local and regional utility that brings solutions to bear on the day-to-day problems that infect our society and thwart our desire for self-actualisation and self-determination within a global and technologically driven environment. The hope of our region lies in the flame of the fire you will ignite through the benefits you have derived from ’the light rising from the west’’.

-Courtesy Barbados Nation