By Admin. Updated 5:55 a.m., Sunday, January 28, 2024, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
An induction ceremony was held to mark the appointment of Professor Justin Robinson as the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the West Indies – UWI Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda.
According to the Collins Dictionary, a ceremony held to mark a person’s formal introduction or entry into an office, position, or group is called an induction ceremony.
Professor Robinson, a Vincentian, was appointed as the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Five Islands Campus on August 1, 2023, but his induction ceremony took place on Saturday, January 27, 2024.
The induction ceremony which was held at the SJPC House of Restoration Ministries in Antigua and broadcast LIVE on UWI Global TV was attended by a number of notable academics such as the principals of the other UWI campuses and government officials.
The UWI Five Islands is the fourth landed campus of the University of the West Indies and the fifth one, overall, as the UWI has an online campus called the Global Campus. The other landed campuses are the Mona campus is Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, and Cave Hill in Barbados.
Professor Robinson is the third principal of the Five Islands Campus which was officially opened in 2019.
As Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Five Islands, Professor Robinson succeeds Professor Densil A. Williams.
Professor Williams was appointed as Principal of the Mona Campus effective August 1, 2023. According to the UWI, he succeeded Pro Vice-Chancellor and Mona Campus Principal, Professor Dale Webber who resumed teaching and research duties as a Marine Biologist after July 31, 2023.
Professor Robinson’s remarks at the January 27 Induction Ceremony:
During his remarks at the induction ceremony, Professor Robinson said: “As the new principal of Five Islands, I think Five Islands has a distinct advantage of newness, and I view as one of my most urgent tasks is that from the outset, to instill in the campus a mantra and a culture of financial sustainability, independent as far as possible from government financing”.
“I see myself as being tasked with crafting a business model that generates the financial sustainability. That is the foundation for all the wonderful things that we want to do,” Professor Robinson added.
During his remarks, he also spoke about the relevance of the Five Islands Campus in the Eastern Caribbean country of Antigua and Barbuda.
He said the two major reasons a landed campus is important for Antigua and Barbuda and servicing the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States – OECS are to have the capacity to build a critical mass needed to navigate our complex environment and to be able to drive research.
“What we tend to have in the Eastern Caribbean because you don’t have that landed campus providing that access to a broad range of people, what you have are pockets of excellence. What you have is a small group of highly skilled people in different areas. What you do not have is that critical mass. So, having the landed campus gives us that capacity to really build that critical mass that we are going to need to navigate this complex environment,” Professor Robinson said.
“The second major reason I see for having a landed campus in Antigua and Barbuda and servicing the OECS is really driving research,” he added.
About Professor Robinson:
Professor Robinson’s appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UWI Five Island Campus in Antigua and Barbuda comes just over two years after he was appointed the Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Board for Undergraduate Studies (BUS) of the University of the West Indies.
That appointment took place on August 1, 2021.
As Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robinson oversaw the Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies (OBUS) which is charged with responsibility for policy, quality, and regionality in developing and coordinating policy initiatives to guide all aspects of undergraduate and sub-degree programming at The UWI and its regional and global affiliates, the University of the West Indies had announced in September 2021.
Among his roles included articulating, implementing, and managing The UWI’s academic quality assurance enhancement system; and the preservation of the regional mandate of The UWI in its undergraduate academic delivery, the UWI said in September 2021.
Professor Robinson’s bio, according to the University of the West Indies’ website:
Professor Robinson has served The UWI for 24 years and continues to have an illustrious career that spans teaching, programme coordination, research, university administration and public service. He first joined the Cave Hill Campus as a Lecturer in the Department of Management Studies in 1997. In 2003, he was promoted to Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, serving in that capacity until 2007. Subsequently, he returned to teaching in Management as Senior Lecturer and then served as Head of the Department of Management for five years.
In 2012, he became Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and has held several other responsibilities at Cave Hill, including campus representative on the University Council and the Board for Undergraduate Studies. He also served as a member of the task force, ‘Creation of an Entrepreneurial University’ in 2016, and a member of the task force for the establishment of a Faculty of Sport in 2017. In 2020, Professor Robinson became the Head of the Department of Economics and Executive Director & CEO Ag. of the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management. He is also Co-Chair of The UWI Corporate Investment Committee, and served on the Committee ‘Imagining The UWI for the 2020/2021 Academic Year and Beyond’.
Professor Robinson has led the development of several BSc and MSc programmes, including the BSc and MSc Banking and Finance programmes and the BSc Management with concentrations in Entrepreneurship, Finance, Human Resource Management, International Business and Marketing. He has also served as supervisor to a total of 12 PhD and 15 MPhil students, to date.
Recipient of the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence 2018/2019 for public service and service to the University; and Most Outstanding Research Article (Faculty of Social Sciences) Special Award on the Occasion of the Inaugural Campus Research Day (2009), Professor Robinson’s impressive publication output includes almost 30 journal articles and book chapters as well as technical reports on Finance in Barbados.
Professor Robinson has been an invited presenter at prestigious conferences around the world, as far as Qatar. His noteworthy portfolio of public service to national, regional, and international public and scholarly bodies spans positions such as Director of the Central Bank of Barbados, First Vice President of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Financial Advisor to the Barbados Co-operative Credit Union League, Financial Advisor to Windward Islands Farmers’ Association (WINFA), Chair of the Barbados National Insurance Scheme, Member of the Council of Economic Advisors, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Member of the ISSA Social Security Investments Expert Panel, and Member of the Oversight Committee on State-Owned Enterprises in Barbados.
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