GROUP CHAIRMAN'S BLOG
Articles & Columns Published in the Jamaican Sunday Gleaner by Dr. Winston Adams
GROUP CHAIRMAN'S BLOG
Articles & Columns Published in the Jamaican Sunday Gleaner by Dr. Winston Adams
June 18, 2017
Government's recent bailout of hundreds of local tertiary students represented a timely reminder of the imbalance between the potential demand by Jamaican students for the provision of tertiary education and the inability of these students to afford such services.
Recall that in April this year - the onset of the 'exam season' - hundreds of university and college students faced the grim reality of being barred from sitting their final exams because of unpaid tuition fees. This situation has become a recurring decimal each year as more and more students seek to attend tertiary institutions, while being unable to meet the rising costs of such higher-level studies.
Add to this the factor of continuing globalisation, which has driven universities to become business enterprises. Universities everywhere are reducing their reliance on public support and are seeking to become more entrepreneurial. Compare the University of the West Indies, Mona, now to 15 years ago.
Government's injection of $300 million to assist needy students at the UWI, Mona, the University of Technology, and the Caribbean Maritime Institute campuses is a decision that was indeed applauded by the Opposition People's National Party and student leaders.
April 21, 2017
Much of the national debate over the past two weeks have centred around the Government's controversial tax measures of $13.5 billion imposed to fill the hole in the budget.
Government has staunchly defended the tax measures which confirm its policy shift from taxing income through the PAYE to the taxing of consumption through the imposition of General Consumption Tax (GCT) and Special Consumption Tax (SCT) on items such as motor vehicle fuels, alcohol and cigarettes.
But how have these tax measures impacted on the higher education sector?
In the absence of a detailed study on the costs of running a tertiary institution, it seems the recent tax measures will cause an increase in overall costs of running these operations. Some of the increased bills that will arise include:
July 23, 2017
Much of the record of failure related to student loan financing schemes is because of problems and limitations - some of which are peculiar to low-income or less industrialised countries - that seem, at least in the short run, to be intractable that is, not solvable simply with smarter policies or better execution. Other challenges may be amenable to alternative policies and/or practices. Among the most serious problems and limitations are the following:
March 25, 2018
There has been much debate recently about the need for the Jamaican government to reduce the public sector wage bill, which often translates into the need to cut the size of the Jamaican public sector.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is the main influencer of government policy over the last two administrations has repeated the importance of bringing the public sector wage bill under nine per cent of GDP from its current level of about 10 per cent.
The last several weeks have seen the trade unions representing public sector workers (teachers, nurses, police, civil servants etc.) battling with government over wage increases ranging from two to six per cent per annum.
July 16, 2017
The fast-growing importance of higher education across the Commonwealth and the world at this juncture can hardly be denied. All countries - developed or developing - are using it for some purpose of utmost significance, whether it is as a support for democracy or as the driving force for the economy.
Despite the universal recognition of its importance, higher education (or the more comprehensive term, tertiary education) is plagued everywhere with some financial constraint or the other. Furthermore, as indicated in a study done by Dr Subhamoy Das, a professor at the University of Calcutta in India, the number of students seeking higher education, especially in the Caribbean and wider Commonwealth, is snowballing at a galloping pace with which the budgetary allocations of the governments cannot cope. The telltale signs of this are now being manifested glaringly in some countries in different forms such as crowded institutions of higher learning, retrograding faculty-student ratios, higher tuition, and other fees.
A handy solution to this financial constraint is cost sharing. The costs of higher education are generally borne by four parties: governments (or taxpayers), parents, students, and philanthropists. At least in Jamaica, the policy is such that at least a portion of the costs of higher education is shouldered by the students and their parents instead of governments and taxpayers bearing the entire amount.