Faculty Report 10/11 - The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

FACULTY OF SCIENCE & AGRICULTURE
Graduation Statistics
At the undergraduate level 626 (94 more than in 2009)
students graduated with BSc (General) degrees in
various academic disciplines offered by the faculty. Of
these 421 were from the School of Science and 205 from
the School of Agriculture. It should be noted that many
of the programmes pursued by students in the faculty
are multidisciplinary and transcends The School of
Science and The School of Agriculture as well as other
Faculties especially the Faculty of Social Sciences. 4.5 %
of the students graduating received first class honours;
12% upper second class honours, 45% lower second
class honours and 38.5% obtained pass degrees. This
declining trend in the percentage of first/upper second
class honours, as well as in the throughput rate has been
observed since 2006 and correlates with the introduction
of the GPA system of grading. A number of student
support systems as well as reexamination of teaching
and learning strategies and the associated modes of
assessment to ensure that they are in alignment with the
expected learning outcomes are being implemented to
address these issues.
At the graduate level 56 students received MSc. degrees,
9 MPhil’s and 4 PhD’s. However, the throughput rate is
still cause for concern. A number of systems (training
sessions in graduate supervision for academic staff,
regular supervisory committee meetings, staff/graduate
student liaison committee meetings, weekly graduate
seminar presentations, and presentations at regional/
international conferences) are being put in place to
address this issue.
Research Funding
Access to adequate research funding has continued to be
one of the major obstacles in the conduct of impactful
research. This challenge has been addressed in a strategic
way through the formation of interdisciplinary research
clusters linked to national/regional developmental
needs. Private/Public sector engagement in the early
stages of the process is encouraged. Workshops in grant
50
writing proposals for academic staff were put in place. As
a result of some of these initiatives, Departments have
been able to secure significant external grant funding.
The Department of Life Sciences attracted funding in
excess of $11.0M (TT) and the School of Agriculture
was involved in joint projects involving regional and
international partners in excess of 5 M (Can) and
which focused on strengthening the region’s food and
nutritional security.
Major Projects Initiated
As a result of increased emphasis being placed on
impactful research and development in the faculty, a
number of strategic multidisciplinary research clusters
have been formed and projects, related to finding solutions
to problems, and for which funding has been acquired
have been initiated. These include among others:
• A new collaborative five-year project with USDA
has been initiated to identify molecular markers
for agronomic traits within the germplasm
collection (CRU)
• CariWatNetject. This EU funded collaborative
project seeks to strengthen the Caribbean
scientific community in natural resources
management and develop integrated watershed
management plans focusing on Haiti and
Trinidad and Tobago.
• IDRC- McGill – UWI-CARICOM Food security
Project
• Development of a Certification System for
Quality of Cocoa Beans in Trinidad and Tobago
- this will allow local regulatory authorities to
monitor and control quality of cocoa beans for
export and local consumption.
• Characterisation of cocoa and chocolate flavour
profiles, using sensory and chemical techniques
- this will provide basis for maximisation of
desirable flavours in local cocoa beans and
development of high quality local chocolates.
• Biotechnology and Molecular Biology for
plant and human health. This project involves