Is mo PPP fault goin on. Kick dem rass out.

Mr. Cain:

Have you seen this.

The Tragedy of UG: An Honest Insider Perspective

The plight of the University of Guyana continues to be a tragedy in the nation, but it is a tragedy choreographed by UG itself.  The government shares some blame but the bulk of the root causes of its plight has to be attributed to the people who have been running UG.

Let’s start with leadership. What can you get from people like Alexander, former YSM leader and Burnham admirer? The biggest failure has been at the Registry where they cannot produce student grades in a timely manner to allow students to register for the next semester.  Although the Berbice Campus sends grades to Turkeyen on time, the Turkeyen folks cannot do the data entry quickly enough to produce student grades. Some students said they are about to graduate and their grades are not in their transcripts, when they pull up their profiles on-line. Who is responsible for this fiasco? – the Registry, not the University Council or government.  The Council has blame only that it did not fire the dimwits who are running the Registry. Now that there is a vacancy for Registrar, I trust UG will bring someone from overseas.  There is nobody there now who will do any differently than is being done now.

Why do you even have a process where the Turkeyen Campus has to do data entry for the Berbice Campus grades when it can easily be done automatically when done electronically.  Are we saying Guyana does not have anybody with sense to program that process? Or, is it that we don’t care.

If you go to the Exams Division area, you would notice every square foot of their space has someone sitting there. They have expanded their staff over the years, yet you cannot get a transcript on the spot if you walk in, as is done in universities abroad, where with 2 clicks, the printer spits out your transcript. In fact, if you graduated from UG in the earlier years such as the 1980s, your transcript is not stored electronically.  They have to go search for it and you will get it after some weeks. They are in paper files, and if UG has a fire, your record is gone forever- you do not exist and you did not go to UG.  Since Opadeyi’s lucrative side job is to digitize land records, this is a project he should have been doing with the transcripts at the UG Registry. But good luck with that.  You think all those people sitting up there in the Registry care about that?

Now, let’s focus on the VC. I believe Mr. Opadeyi might be the highest paid VC in the history of UG, and probably the highest paid government official in Guyana.  Maybe, the Council can set the record straight on that. I understand he negotiated some very good terms and conditions for himself. (Is it true this package is close to $2 million per month?). On top of that, why did the Council allow him to take a side job, when he has a lot of mess to clean up at UG?  The Council must take blame for this. Having two jobs can cause a man to have to check in at the Heart Center.  And if something fatal happens to him, with all that stress doing a side job and the UG job, Guyana may have to pay for it. Is Opadeyi the only VC with such a lucrative side job while being VC? And how is that project going? Many thought Dr. Jaipaul Singh, a Guyanese who has been working with UG over the years, was a more experienced candidate with access to more resources to help UG.

However, we must give credit to Opadeyi for trying to revise the UG staff workload. That’s going to root causes of UG’s current problems. UG Lecturers are probably among the lowest paid in the world.  But UG academic staff have some of the lowest workload and duties compared to foreign colleges and universities.  In terms of work, UG is a cushy job where you may not see some lecturers on campus apart from their scheduled teaching times.  This is a norm at UG. Why don’t Opadeyi or the Press release the proposed, new workload for the public to judge if the expectations are too unreasonable?

But it is a great crying shame that someone is a UG Lecturer and cannot afford to own a car, or a house. I remember seeing a Deputy Vice Chancellor jostling at the car park to get a car to UG.  This is a shame. In the USA, some cleaners have nicer vehicles than their bosses. Shame must go to the government for not giving duty free concessions to the UG Staff. I felt sad when I heard it was under Dr. Jagan that the concessions were withdrawn. (From the recent sniping between the GTU and Education Minister, it is clear that even when the concession is agreed upon, the Government side does little to enforce it).  The government and country must understand that UG is a foundational institution, and must be accorded some special treatment. Academic staff can do better outside of Guyana, and so we must honour those whom have stayed and want to help their country. Without UG, where would teachers, scientists, accountants, managers, nurses, lawyers, doctors, and even crooked politicians come from? In the US, someone receiving unemployment benefits gets more money than a UG lecturer. The Council should lobby the government to restore the duty-free concessions right away. Any support for better salaries must be tied to a revised workload. That’s not negotiable.

Is UG poor?  Not really.  UG has lots of money, but the problem is how the money is spent.  Some see UG as a feeding trough and they milk it. Opadeyi and the Council should release the travel list and expenses for the staff who travel. There are some senior staff and heads of departments who try to hog those travel funds.  Many travel to things that bring no direct benefit to UG.  One senior person at the Berbice campus went to Thailand.  I understand that costs UG almost a million dollars, and UG got no benefit from that.  At the Berbice Campus, a request was made for $125,000 for a going away party for someone who was promoted to Turkeyen. Luckily, that request was denied.  UG spends money on fancy retreats and staff parties. When you have a serious money problem, you have to control or eliminate this type of spending until things improve.

These are some more ways in which UG wastes your money due to continued backwardness. At American universities, each instructor creates and gives the final exam to their students in the regular class setting on the last day of class.  They are already being paid and that’s their job.  You don’t have to pay them extra. There are no Exams Division or bureaucratic process for approval of grades. The instructors collect the papers, grade them, put their grades in the spreadsheet electronically and grades are ready in a day or two.  Grades don’t have to be approved through a department head or bureaucratic process.

But, this is how our UG does it. They pay outside invigilators to come in and give the Exam. That costs extra time and lots of money. Your money. Before that, the Instructor has to create a test and get it approved. That costs time. If there is a full time instructor at the Turkeyen Campus teaching a course, and there is a part time lecturer at the Berbice Campus teaching the same course number, UG requires that both lecturers develop and create one test, although each instructor may have taught the course based on their own styles and emphasis. That costs time. Further, the instructors cannot discuss the test by phone or by email. You have to meet face-to-face.  If the part-time person from Berbice travels to Turkeyen, he has to be paid salary, travel and expenses.  That costs time and money. Your money. In the 21^st century, why are we operating like this?

Next, once you decide on the test, you have to send the test to the Exams division. They print the test; they have to do special packaging of the tests.  If you are in Berbice, they have to transport the tests to Berbice.  Once it gets there, somebody has to store it. On Exams day, the outside invigilators have to get it from the Test Office. After the test is given, the papers have to be packaged, taken back to the test office to be stored. The Instructor has to get papers from the office, score them and return them after grading. Have you counted the number of tasks of packaging, handling and shipping going on? Now, the test has to be graded. The part time person is paid extra. So there is a long drawn out, inefficient, unnecessary steps in the UG process. After the tests are graded, you submit paper copies of your grades.  Some committee has to approve the grades, then someone has to put the grades in somebody’s spreadsheet at Turkeyen. So the stupidity of the UG process never ends. 

Opadeyi needs to scrap this testing process and adopt the US process and you save tens of millions with the stroke of a pen.  Unfortunately, when Opadaeyi first came to UG, he talked about sending the papers abroad for more scoring. So he won’t see the stupidity of the current process. UG needs to establish a fully electronic process for grades and transcripts, and disband the Exams Division and reassign or fire those people to save money. They can do an electronic process now; they have the capacity and software and tools to do that.  Why are they not doing it? Is this a Council or government problem? I think not!

Another way UG wastes money is paying for course revisions.  There was a news report of UG paying money to some external group to do course revisions.  Why do they have to pay for this when they can go on line and find what other universities are doing? Don’t UG have smart people who can do that? Is this a Council problem or a government problem? Why waste money this way?

Why isn’t UG offering on-line courses as part of its regular degree curriculum, in this the 21^st century?  UG has the Moodle software to do on-line courses, why are they not using it?  Whose fault is this?  The Council or government? American universities are able to be solvent because they are increasingly using on-line courses as a cost saving measure to boost their profits.  The labor cost and overheads to run an on-line course is a fraction of what it costs to use full time staff.  Even high schools in America offer on-line courses. If UG starts to use on-line classes, there are many Guyanese abroad who would be willing to help out or teach for UG.  Why aren’t we using this option? This is what I call the “braindeadism” that afflicts UG.  Who really are the progressive people at UG? Think of the cost savings when you don’t have to pay Georgetown folks to go to Berbice, or vice versa.

Another way UG shortchanges its students is in certain courses such as introductory politics and economics, instead of doing small group tutorials after the lectures, they do large group tutorials. This is unfair to students.

UG simply cannot wait on the government for handouts when they can be creative and do things to help themselves.  Suggestions were made to Opadeyi that he should connect UG with government resources.  The same way Opadeyi worked out a side contract for himself, he could have done that for UG.  Take the Berbice Campus, for instance.  The ministries combined in Region 6 have tens of millions of dollars for project monitoring, project evaluation, training of government staff such as the police, etc. What UG needs to do is secure government contracts to monitor the government projects, do training, etc.  In this way, the lecturers are leading projects and can earn extra pay or bonuses for that, they can employ the students in part time work or provide internships or work study experiences. Lecturers can write about the projects, thus boosting their research and publications.  In addition, we might end up getting better roads, bridges, buildings, because smart students are doing the monitoring. This is a win-win for Guyana.  Instead, the unions are out protesting, want full pay while doing that, and are withholding student grades.  Is this a winning formula? (It makes you wonder if not providing grades in a timely manner is deliberate to have leverage for their union protests).

In some areas, UG is overstaffed. There are people sitting in offices doing nothing, while they squeeze and pressure the underpaid and under-resourced cleaning staff and janitors.

UG staff complains about opportunities for advanced training.  One professor told me he had contacted a UG Registrar about scholarships that he can swing for UG from his American university.  He never heard back from the UG Registrar, so that person arranged about 20 scholarships over the years to the University of Belize.  Several Belizeans got their Masters and Doctorates that way.  People would tell you it’s hard to help UG because sometimes you have to beg them to help them.  If they do reply you, they put you through all kinds of red tape.  Is this a Council problem or government problem?

Now, why is it one of the UG unions is not recognized?  Is it that they have failed to meet some union compliances?  So how much credibility do they have, if they can’t get their own house in order? They need to correct that problem, if this has not been resolved as yet.

The UG administrators have no shame and no standards of quality.  I have seen long lines of students waiting to register.  I have seen long lines waiting at the student loan department.  I have seen lines of people at the Bursary. What can these people run efficiently? Are these the people teaching our students how to run a country?

Notwithstanding that UG has choreographed its own demise by backward thinking and poor leadership, on the whole, the Union people are good people. Dr. Ifill, Dr. Francis and Mr. Haynes are good people, and they are doing the right thing.  However, we need a new, responsible unionism, that goes beyond “The Council is bad, the government is bad.”  The Unions need to push for creative, 21^st century leadership and strategies to rescue UG.

I do believe in a national university, but if the UG staff continues with the old unionism, and the administration continues with its old backward ways, only privatization may save UG.  The Nations University and Trexila should expand and give UG a run for its money or even make a bid to buy UG.

Guyana cannot afford to pour new wine in the old wineskins of UG. If you double their salaries, they will operate in the same old, ineffective ways.  Nothing will change. But in the midst of this melee, where is the voice of the Minister?

Sincerely,

Friend of UG

Where was that published?

When Opadeyi was interviewing for the position he was asked in an open forum, what will you do to build bridges to the govt since the govt is the funder of UG, his dumb response was "Govt should keep out."

So why they want govt to be involved now when they screw it up?  Should govt bail them out every time they bankrupt the place?

But excuse me Opadeyi screwed up UG?

Mr. Cain: That was a comment to the Demerara Waves article on 2/ 12/2015, headings of UG unions " claim that pay talks collapsed is flawed.

Mr. TK:

Opadeyi is too new to say he screwed up UG. He inherited a big mess.

Opadeyi is too busy making money on his side contract to be able to focus on UG's problems.

It shows his naiveté when he said the Govt should keep out.

I agree the government should keep out because they are merely the elected custodians of the peoples patrimony. They don't own UG, NICIL, Chronicle, NCN, the consolidated funds, etc. However, they own the Mirror, GIMPEX and Michael Forde. What a civilized and progressive government would tend to do is demand that the university fits into a broad vision of the government's development strategy. UG must never be in the business of moulding malleable souls as they do over in Cuba. What academic insights Shadick and Lumumba bring to the university? We will have a better informed civil society like Jamaica, Barbados and Barbados if there is an independent university. This is not to excuse some of the administrators and faculty who abuse the university as their little fiefdoms instead of producing academic public good. 

You made some good points.  However, nowhere in the world would you find the government paying and not appointing its people to the Council or Board.

In many US states, Governors appoint its people on boards and commissions. At UG, the Council does not really micromanage UG. No matter how much money you give UG or how many times you bail them out, it will be the same thing, because they have a moribund operational culture that is unredeemable. The best way to save UG short of privatization is to hire a management company from outside to reorganize and reculture it.  Everything is not a fault of the govt.

Ok I give, is not all the Govt's fault but kick em out nevertheless

This is complete nonsense how can the government keep out when they have all of their stooges on the council for UG and they are responsible for funding UG?

They are busy thiefin money out of GGMC rather than putting it into UG and if there are accountability issues there how is that different from any ministry?

Why isn't the auditor general in there? There is no escaping this UG's decay is at the feet of the PPP.

I am not aware of private universities in the US having government selects on their board. I am aware of public ones where the governor of the state selects a few representatives. These persons never get involved in academic matters. There is no such thing as privatization of a university. Even for profit private universities like Uni of Phoenix survive by the will of federal govt grants to students. They would simply have to close down if the govt stops giving tuition assistance. That Texila University PPP brought from India is a fraud. A management company cannot solve the problems at UG. A university is at the core very different than a private corporation. They have completely different ethos. A university is as good as its faculty and student body, therefore those two groups will need to be part of the solution. First, govt needs to inject the capital to save the place. UG is far more important than the Marriott or a new airport terminal. Second, faculty has to accept their primary responsibility as scholars in search of truth. Third, the students must pay the G$ equivalent of US$1000 per year. Admin and faculty need to come up with a plan to bring in foreign students who will be charged a premium. They also need to sell the services of the faculty to private sector and govt agencies. Govt will still need to continue their annual subventions. I agree with the essay posted above. There is no need for an exam division. In North America faculty create the exams and decide the grade. That is an old fashioned bureaucracy that must go. The govt and the PNC must stop using UG as a political tool. Using a management company is perhaps the worse thing they can do now.

How can a facility "University Of Guyana" not have anything to do with the Guyana Govt?

TK:

Did you attend UG or know their culture?

Instead of working hard, they are hardly working.

Have you ever gone into the cafeteria and see the trash cans overflowing, spilling on the ground and they don't have sense to change the bags. That's a management problem.

They always cut the grass and leave the piles on the ground for days before picking them up. Place never looks nice. That's a management problem.  I can go on and on.

So I wish the PPP bad, but at what point will UG take responsibility for the plight of UG?

I attended UG as student and taught there one year. Visited 11 months  ago. Trash indeed. However I don't see the need for a management contract. Faculty, administrators and students must take responsibility. How can some of the best CXC performers litter in the cafeteria? How can they chew gums and spit on the concrete? Management consultants can't fix an academic program including what must be in the syllabi.

maybe they should close down the university and every chuck bird like me

This university should be merged with UWI and let UWI who has professionals in this space manage the University.

This will ensure that government is out of the picture and all the govt has to do is allocate funds to UWI every year as part of the budget end of story.

If you look at this video it is clear that there are bigger issues than students chewing gum and littering. There is a bigger issue here. The students are not bringing the Horses to class from what I can tell.

Doesn't U.G. fall under the Ministry of Education?

It is a very good idea the merging with UWI. They will do the quality control at all levels. However I don't know if UWI wants this burden.

I think if the money is right and through some urging of Caricom they could be influenced to take over UG.

It will take some negotiation I am sure but where there is a will there will be a way.

Just look at the coalition and the belly wuk it has given the great Shittain.

The trash is a management issue; the animals roaming is a management issue; the broken electrical outlets is a management issue.The signs on the Registry and Bursary are dirty, that's a management issue. These don't require much money to fix.

Their "habits of mind" are backward.

Fair enough. However UG is supposed to have its own internal physical plant workers doing all manner of things like electrical repairs to weeding the grass. Does the management contract try to make this unit better or outsource these tasks?

Government has not produced a serious plan to improve the long-term financial viability of UG

Posted By Staff Writer On February 6, 2015 @ 5:07 am In Letters |

Mr. Khemraj:

1. Dr. Ifill just disclosed that Opadeyi makes $3.12 million per month plus benefits. This compares to many community colleges in the USA that has more students and programs. That's one lucky man.  Never been a Dean or VC and coming here as the highest paid in the country. And our Govt threw Dr. Jaipaul Singh, a better man,  under the bus.

2. Your ideas for expanding programs to other countries, small Caricom islands, teaching of English are things the Academics and administrators should come up with. That's not for the govt to do. You expect Manickchand to have any sense about that?

3. Opadeyi knows how to work out a side contract for himself, how come he could not position UG to do things like that?

4. Most people at UG wants it to be a govt feeding trough - no intent in doing creative/progressive thinking because that will require more work, and who wants to do that?

5. If nobody is producing any research, should they not suspend the sabbatical program whereby they get a whole year's leave with pay. Isn't that the fleecing of Guyana?  Can a bankrupt university afford to do that?

Mr. Redux:

People like Alexander former YSM leader and Burnham admirer was registrar for many years.  That's a key position.  Registrar virtually runs the place.

People like Clive ran his own Empire.

Double their salaries and NOTHING WILL CHANGE. 

UG is like Humpty Dumpty.  All the king's horses and all the King's men cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.  Read the Peeping Tom column on UG.  You can't save it with the current crowd in charge.

Do you want Govt. to keep rewarding mediocrity? 

This is why I am of the firm belief that UG should be merged into UWI and the government funds a certain percentage of its cost for operations and development end of story.

$3.12 million per mth appears to be too much for a poor university in Caricom's second poorest economy. However it is a below what a Provost gets on average in America or a VC gets at UWI. I disagree strongly with jettisoning the sabbatical system. It is a slippery slope. If someone goes on research leave he/she ought to have something to show at the end of the year. There has to be some policing mechanism. This is simple stuff to fix. They must repay year salary if no research was done. Research means something that is publishable.

I think they need a two tier system. One in which there a faculty will be a lecturer and do services with no research expectations (this is now being done in United States). These folks will not be required to do research and publish. They don't need sabbatical. The second tier will be on the path to professorship. They will need research and publications. Hence they should get the sabbatical. 

Don't give the PPP an easy pass. Don't apologize for them. I went to UG from 92 to 96. I had a fleeting few months in the PNC UG and it was significantly better than today's PPP UG. The PPP deliberately allowed the university to disintegrate into its present state. Some of these fools at OP and Freedom House actually believe a for profit university can produce the public goods and positive externalities as a publicly funded UG. It is the govt which must provide the capital injection to first improve the place and hire the kind of PhDs who can take the institution to a higher level.

Hey Boss...please call me TK. No Mr Khemraj. If you ever meet me in person...my first name will suffice.

TK:

The PPP took out a $10M US loan for them. They need to give us progress reports on what we are getting for that.

In America they have a saying that you just can't throw money at a problem. UG has a very deep, moribund, toxic culture that is anti-progress.  I agree with the "Tragedy of UG" article above that the greater blame must go to the UG management itself.  One of the very deadly diseases I found in Guyana is what I call, "let-the-government-do-it-titis." People sit on their aspirations and want govt to clean the piece of drain in front their yards, or cut the grass.UG is the same - a culture of excuse making, and not taking any responsibility.

so, why has the physical plant of our our flagship (actually, ONLY) university beeen allowed to deteriorate to the 4th World level it is at right now?

is there ANY national culture in the hemisphere that would tolerate what passes for a university library in Turkeyen . . . while we build a Marriott and Casino with found money from sale of the People's Gt&T shares?

is that the staff and lecturers' fault?

have u ever truly wondered why the duty-free concessions have not been restored?

'a pox on all their heads' is a wilful refusal to appreciate the begnign neglect strategy of the PPP in 'areas' it cannot thoroughly control

smh

Jay this one is for you.

=========

Gov’t still to tap into US$10M loan for science, technology overhaul, Carrington reveals

Posted By Staff Writer On January 29, 2012 @ 5:26 am In Local News |

Despite the University of Guyana’s financial straits, the government is still to activate a US$10 million World Bank loan to overhaul the science and technology departments, outgoing Vice-Chancellor Professor Lawrence Carrington revealed on Friday.

In a farewell address to university staff in the George Walcott Lecture Theatre, at the Turkeyen Campus, Carrington said the university has been chipping away at its “financial embarrassment,” but funding remains a problem that has to be addressed along with a clear state policy on its role in developing the country.

Lawrence Carrington

Carrington dubbed the negotiation of the World Bank Science and Technology Support Project the “single most important success,” while explaining that it would see an input to the University of Guyana of about US$10 million over a five-year period. The funds would be dedicated towards the rehabilitation and refurbishing of the science and technology laboratory facilities in four faculties at Turkeyen, the review and reform of the science curriculum and support for research towards low carbon themes. He added that the proposal includes the creation of a fibre-optic ring and networking for Information Technology capacity in the Turkeyen Campus and appropriate complementary capacity and linkage at the Berbice Campus.

However, Carrington reported that the loan to the government is not yet activated because the Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh is still to sign a crucial financial loan document.

“We have written to the new Minister of Education (and to the old minister for that matter) requesting audience to discuss the matter and our Chancellor has been speaking to the Minister of Finance, but the matter is still incomplete,” he said. “My hope is that the university will continue to press for this loan to be activated and to cooperate with the processes that it will entail,” he added.

Although Carrington did not indicate the period of delay, last December, visiting Professor Dr Rory Fraser said that the proposal had been submitted to Singh six months prior.

‘A problem’

During his address, Carrington bluntly stated that “money is a problem,” while adding that he regretted not having been able to advance a consultation on the financing of tertiary education for Guyana.

He said the university has been skilful “in doing more with less,” while sharing his admiration for what some have been able to accomplish with the “pittances that represent their annual budgets” at the departmental and faculty levels.

“The cry from outside has been that we should increase our efficiency in the use of funds. Heaven knows we try. Others say we must run the university like a business enterprise.

But they do not talk of the capital investment that businesses start with in order to earn their profits. These are not excuses. They are realities. In order to earn one has to invest,” he added, noting that the university has exposed its need by submitting deficit budgets to the government.

Carrington added that financing has to be addressed within a larger context than is presently being done. In this regard, he noted that part of the input has to be “a clear state policy on the place of tertiary education and research in national development.” He was nevertheless optimistic that the university will be able to advance towards a consultative dialogue that will ensure it a    significantly more tenable financial position with the genuine development of a capacity to sustain itself.

Last year, the government support for the university was questioned when spokesmen for the PPP/C administration, including then Education Minister Shaik Baksh, declared that additional government funding must require a cost-review for various aspects of the university’s operations.

In addition to financing, he identified the university’s staffing, staffing policy and competitiveness as an employer as areas where there is significant unfinished business. In particular, he said the “elephant in the room” was staff salaries, which he said were crucial to ensuring the university’s competitiveness.

“We will not justify the label of university if all we can show in a teaching and research staff of 359 academics are 9 professors and 17 senior lecturers. Only two departments are headed by professors, both temporary, and only four by senior lecturers, one temporary. If all we can offer a professor at the top of our scales is the equivalent of US$1,725, we will not be able to compete with a Caribbean competitor offering the equivalent of US$8,429 at a comparable level.

So our planning has to shift the matter of emoluments to the top of the agenda,” he recalled telling the last annual business meeting of the University Council held in November last year.

He noted that since then there have been more proposals than concrete achievements, but added that there have been some improvements in terms and conditions of service for university staff. Among the “baby steps” he identified were establishing a credit line to Dell computers that allows the university, staff and other members of the university community to purchase computers at significantly reduced prices; changing the policy on the participation of members of non-academic staff in study programmes that require attendance during standard working hours; and formulating proposals for duty-free concessions on the purchase of vehicles on a wider scale.

More recently, Carrington added, proposals have been drafted for improving the policy on staffing and staff recruitment and it has already been discussed at the level of the University Council. The Council, he said, is in favour of the idea and wants fuller proposals. “We must be aware though that a policy of that nature cannot work in isolation from more attractive terms and conditions of work and sensibly competitive emoluments and reward,” he pointed out.

The future

With the university’s 50th anniversary a year away, Carrington noted that a new strategic plan is needed to take the institution into its second half century.
“…You will have to build the next half-century by making wise and bold decisions in shaping our new plan,” he said, while noting that the review of the current 2009 to 2012 plan provides an important plank for the university to shape its future.

Recalling his initial assessment of the university governance structure as archaic, he said the university’s statutes, rules, regulations, procedures and policies belong to an era long past and cannot be left to clutter the 21st century. “We need to bring UG in line with what obtains at other universities around the world,” he declared, while pointing out that it succeeded in obtaining from the Caribbean Develop-ment Bank (CDB) a substantial grant to allow it to engage a consulting firm to review its regulatory framework to improve operations. In a matter of days, he said the university is scheduled to engage in negotiations with the successful bidder.

“The outcome of the project must not be another shelf report. It has to be an active engagement in change of the many oppressive and inhibiting features of the [University of Guyana] that have prevented it for many decades from fulfilling the potential it was expected to mobilise.

 

The archaic governance and management and administrative structures of the university must no longer be allowed to provide an excuse or a shelter for inefficiency and incompetence,” he said.

He added that the review would be an opportunity to debate and propose the solutions at a structural level that would lead the university into genuinely contemporary operational styles and emphasised to staff the importance of their going beyond collaboration in the process, to advocacy for the changes that would be proposed.

What a waste of money. If only the PPP understood what makes a university.

================

UG signs contract for consultancy to enhance operations

Posted By Staff Writer On March 23, 2012 @ 5:13 am In Local News |

as you say . . . the PPP Gov't hired Opadeyi with his "$3.12 million per month plus benefits"

what's your point here again?

Jay? What's going on? Which university on this planet except UG borrows to pay consultants to create curriculum?

That's my point.  That's how lazy they are.

There are some later articles on how they are spending that US$10 M loan.

They had given out some $$$ including $$$ for Corilla research that Dr. Cummings is doing.

I think the recent painting of buildings was part of that project.

Why don't the UG workers tell us how many hours they want them to work, so the public can judge if they deserve 75% increase in pay?