THE LIBRARY MONA Year ending July 31, 2004 - Uwi.edu

candidates to take up all the available spaces. The programme, funded fora ten year period, also attempts to utilize the latest ICTs in its deliverywithout reinventing the wheel. Within the Faculty, the School ofEducation leads the way in the use of ICTs, with almost a quarter of itsMasters students doing their degrees through an on-line programme.With funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) theSchool of Education also developed and brought to the point ofimplementation an M.Ed. in Leadership in Early Childhood Education.This is a planned activity in keeping with the Campus’ and Faculty’sstrategic emphasis on post graduate teaching and research. In thisparticular instance the degree also complements the Faculty’s associationwith Shortwood Teacher’s College which delivers the undergraduatedegree programme in Early Childhood Education.Also consonant with meeting the competitive challenges of other tertiaryinstitutions as identified by the Wint Report, the Faculty continueddiscussions with the Mico College and Moneague Teachers College with aview to harmonizing and coordinating collaboration with them in areas ofmutual concern. The ultimate objective is to be able to redeploy theFaculty’s resources to achieve the strategic objective of becoming moreresearch driven by, among other things, increasing intake of post-graduatestudents. In the first instance Primary Education and Literacy educationhave been targeted as areas of collaboration with both institutionsrespectively.Taking seriously the strategic objective of being research driven, theFaculty also moved to integrate administratively its graduate studiesprogrammes in response to the expressed needs of graduate students who,over the years have felt a sense of alienation. The fact is that, unlikeundergraduates, graduate students have had no dedicated physical spacethat allows them to feel at home within the Faculty. The decision wastherefore taken to create an appropriate administrative structure as well assuch a space for our graduate students. While a location has beenidentified, some renovations and physical expansion will have to beundertaken. In spite of the budgetary crisis, this item is being treated withthe highest priority so that by the start of the 2005/06 academic yeargraduate students will have their own facilities within the Faculty.29