The University of Guyana (UG) has reached a historic moment by earning institutional accreditation for the first time in its 62-year history.
According to the Executive Director of Guyana’s National Accreditation Council (NAC), Dr Marcel Hutson, this achievement not only signifies the university’s commitment to excellence but also paves the way for its credits to be seamlessly recognised by other universities across the Caribbean.
“So, UG is now fully accredited in terms of the institution, institutional accreditation, something that has never happened for sixty-two years. Upon my ascension to the office after I received the appointment. What I did, I pulled the list of all top Government institutions to examine where they were in terms of accreditation, because accreditation has significance in terms of recognition, not just locally, but internationally. Credits can now be transferred from University of Guyana to other universities and so on. So, the idea of a university being accredited gives credence to the capacity, the capability of students graduating and so on,” Dr Hutson said.
From R-L: Dr Diana Gobin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Finance; Dr Nigel Gravesande, Registrar, UG; Dr Emanuel Cummings, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic Engagement; Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin; Hon Priya Manickchand, Minister of Education; Dr Mohandat Goolsarran, Chair of the National Accreditation Council (NAC); Dr Marcel Hutson, CEO of the National Accreditation Council; and Dr Jacqueline Maurry, Director of IDCE, receive the Accreditation certificate from the National Accreditation Council at a ceremony held at the Education Lecture Theatre (ELT) at UG’s Turkeyen Campus
Following an exhaustive review process led by a team of distinguished academics from Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, UG fulfilled 16.5 of the 17 accreditation standards. The half-point shortfall was attributed to the outdated nature of its 1970 Mission Statement, which the university plans to revise under the guidance of its new council.
The accreditation process assessed UG’s main Turkeyen and Tain Campuses, as well as its Institute for Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE) centres in Georgetown, Linden, and New Amsterdam.
In an interview with this publication on Monday, Hutson confirmed that the accreditation is valid for five years and aligns UG with the standards outlined in the Caribbean Community’s Treaty of Chaguaramas.
“When you go to a foreign university with a piece of paper, a piece of qualification from a local university, normally those entities will ask you for your paper and then they may do the research to find out if the institution you have graduated from, if it is recognised by your own country. And in the past, people could not have said that, yes, my institution is recognised by my own country. Now, they could say that, it strengthens and bolsters UOG’s position in any kind of academic negotiations,” he added.
Hutson went on to note that the university has steadily climbed 3,017 places in global rankings over the past five years and has its sights set on breaking into the top 200 universities worldwide by 2029.
Further, he stated that the accreditation strengthens UG’s reputation and bolsters the mobility of its graduates, allowing students to have their academic credits transferred more easily to institutions abroad.
For students, past and present, this milestone is particularly significant.
“I’ve graduated from there three times. I did a bachelor’s, postgraduate and a master. I did my doctorate in the US…So, think about it now, it’s a feather in your cap now at this juncture, where you could now celebrate, it doesn’t matter when you graduated, it now means that the university is now recognised in 2024, it has now been accredited. So, all that happened then, back then, is now given coverage now,” Hutson said.
Different level
Meanwhile, Education Minister Priya Manickchand, in her reflection of the university’s origin stated that the accredited places the nation’s graduates on a different level now.
“Jagan’s Night School has now grown into a university that has graduated most of the cabinet, has graduated most of the doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), has graduated most of the people traversing the courts. I think, in fact, the last appointment of judges, the largest that we’ve ever had, every single one of them came from the University of Guyana and so this is an institution that has earned its stripes, has earned its rightful place… And our scholars here have gone on to universities across the world and other institutions and have made their mark and are making their name and are contributing in a worldwide sense in whatever field it is that they’re performing in”.
“It places our graduates on a different level now. If you’re coming from an accredited university, it means something when you go to a university that is looking for accreditation,” the Minister said. (G1)
