The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE “process of refocusing and reframing the College of The Bahamas as the University of The Bahamas is well under way,” Prime Minister Perry Christie said during the institution’s transformational project launch ceremony.

Over the next four months, a systematic and cosmetic overhaul of the nation’s premier tertiary institute will take place, shifting COB into the “nucleus” of Bahamian development.

Mr Christie indicated that at the heart of his administration’s plans to improve the nation’s persistent issues is a strengthened and improved tertiary institution.

He said all improvements made at the institute will have lasting impressions on the country. Mr Christie noted that over his 40 years in public life he has seen many examples of strong universities being the driving force in developing the societies surrounding them.

He said the premier challenge facing the country is its geographical makeup, adding that governing an archipelagic nation “requires such an extraordinary degree of planning”.

“A country like The Bahamas with no models to go by, an entire archipelago where there is a need for the duplication of infrastructure, where people who live in the urban centres have a greater advantage over people who live in the rural areas, in remote islands. Yet every child needs to participate equally in the equity of society,” said Mr Christie at the project launch at COB on Wednesday night.

“This is why I want the University of The Bahamas, because I believe that degree of accountability the country needs will come from the University of The Bahamas.

“In our country, people are hostage to the extent that a government has in its midst some smart people. People are hostage to the extent you have permanent secretaries with the capacity to lead and advise, and to that extent there are deficiencies. To that extent, the county suffers. We can beat our chest and be FNM and be DNA, but at least for God’s sake know what the country is missing and what it needs.”

Last October, State Minister for Finance Michael Halkitis brought a resolution to Parliament seeking approval from the House of Assembly to borrow $16m from the Caribbean Development Bank to fund the College of The Bahamas’ transformation into a university.

The Golden Isles MP said at the time the loan represented the funding of phase one of the institution’s transformation into a university, adding that COB would realise university status by July 2015.

In a recent interview with The Tribune, College Council Chairman Alfred Sears vowed that phase one of COB’s transformation would add new life to the Oakes’ Field campus.

Mr Sears said that plans are in place to achieve not only the prime minister’s university mandate but insisted that initiatives have been approved to enhance the product the institute presently delivers.