Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo today said he believes the country’s premier tertiary learning institution, the University of Guyana, must improve its operation and output, noting that the experiences that are being relayed about the University, do not reflect what the government wants from an institution that it is preparing to fully support. 

Responding to questions from reporters today about almost similar budgetary allocations for the University of Guyana and the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme, Mr. Jagdeo said the GOAL programme is there to supplement the academic offerings at UG, while casting doubt on the quality of the University’s output. 

“I believe they (the University of Guyana) must consolidate around a number of programmes that are high quality, and not seek to every time somebody goes there to start a new programme, then they don’t have a lecturer or something else or has ten students for that programme and it can’t sustain itself. They need to have good quality first degrees, particularly around a core number of areas and quality is important,” the Vice President said.

Mr. Jagdeo said concerns have been expressed over the University’s output quality, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that all of the University’s programmes appear to be confined to online learning.

He said that is not the experience the government would want with a campus it has to sustain.

“So, a lot has to be reviewed there too and the government, now that it will be using tax payers’ resources to fund the entire University, will need to ensure that we have solid leadership and that also we have value for money and the quality of the degree of a standard that is recognized everywhere in the world,” Mr. Jagdeo said.

The Vice President said the pace in which the country needs to qualify its citizens need both the University of Guyana and the GOAL programme.

“The GOAL programme doesn’t offer the educational services, this is done by institutions abroad and the prices are negotiated and I must say that if you look at the expenditure per person, it is way below that of the University of Guyana, based on the prices that are negotiated,” Jagdeo told reporters.

According to Mr. Jagdeo, the Institutions that are providing services to GOAL have to go through a quality assurance test, before being chosen. He said doubts should not be cast on the Certificates received through GOAL. 

In further justifying the GOAL programme, Mr. Jagdeo said even its administrative spending is significantly lower than the University of Guyana.

The 60-year-old University of Guyana has been allocated $4.1 Billion in the National Budget, while the 3-year-old GOAL programme has been allocated $4 Billion. The GOAL programme utilises mostly foreign Universities for its online based programmes, which range from Certificate programmes to Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees.

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