Professor Randolph Persaud elected UG Pro Chancellor

The University of Guyana (UG) announced Thursday the elected appointment of Prof. Randolph Persaud as Pro Chancellor to UG following the procedures laid out by the statutes and the 12th Council of the University on Monday, December 8, 2025.
The new Pro Chancellor will also perform the duties of Acting Chancellor of UG while a new Chancellor is named. The university in its press release, extended its appreciation to Prof John Edward Greene, the immediate past Chancellor for his stellar and futuristic leadership of the university’s Council from 2019, whose tenure has come to a natural end. The University also wishes to thank the immediate past Council.
The new Council also extended gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Paloma Mohamed-Martin, who has, by statute, carried the additional duties of Pro-Chancellor since 2020 while a new Pro-Chancellor was named, as well as recently acting in the role of Chancellor under statutes governing vacancies of these positions. According to the release, the Vice-Chancellor has, on behalf of the University community, welcomed and warmly congratulated Prof Persaud, who has maintained a close relationship with the university since his return to Guyana upon retirement from international service.

As Pro-Chancellor, Prof Persaud will work with the Council which oversees the strategic direction of the University, and the Vice-Chancellor and Senior Management team who have executive responsibility for the management and operations of the University.
Prof Persaud is a well-respected academic and international scholar. He is currently an Advisor in the Office of the President, the Director of the National Defence Institute (NDI), and a Teaching Fellow at the Institute for Human Resiliency, Strategic Security and the Future at UG. He holds the BA (Hons), MA, and PhD in Political Science from York University, Toronto, and is Professor Emeritus at the American University, Washington DC. He was Director of Comparative and Regional Studies at the School of International Service (SIS), American University, Assistant Director for the Centre for International and Security Studies, York University, Vice President and the elected President of the SIS, which is among the largest schools of international affairs in the world.

Professor Persaud has consulted with the United States (US) State Department, Carnegie Corporation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the United Nations (UN) via the UN University, and the World Bank on Bio-Diversity excellence at UG and was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced International Theory, University of Sussex. He previously served as an academic editor for Third World Quarterly and currently sits on the editorial board of the journal. Professor Persaud is a widely published scholar with a significant international footprint. He has spoken at 37 universities, including the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Johns Hopkins University, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), City, University of London, the University of Toronto, McMaster University, and universities in Japan, Korea, Italy, Taiwan, Sweden, the Netherlands (Holland), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others. The university community congratulates the new Pro-Chancellor. The university looks forward to working with Prof Persaud and the new university Council on the continued trajectory of UG in achieving the University Blueprint’s national focus on growth in science, technology, human problem solving and the provision of world-class university education for the nation.