Representatives of the University of Guyana (UG) and the private sector are to meet to discuss a proposal mooted by the Guyana Manufacturers and Services Association (GMSA) for the creation of a business school at UG.

UG Vice-Chancellor Professor Lawrence Carrington

Newly appointed UG Vice-Chancellor Professor Lawrence Carrington, who is advocating closer collaboration between the university and the private sector told Stabroek Business earlier this week that he was aware of the announcement made by the GMSA that it was prepared to work with UG towards the setting up of a business school. Professor Carrington said that the university was “very pleased” with the gesture from the private sector adding that there was now a need for the two sides to “get together” to discuss the GMSA’s proposal.

GMSA President Ramesh Dookhoo last week informed Stabroek Business that a six-member support group that included Chairman of the Private Sector Commission Captain Gerry Gouveia; Chairman of the Caribbean Association of Chartered Accountants Harry Parmesar and Ramesh Seebarran of the firm Bissessar and Seebarran had been named  to work with the university towards the creation of the business school.

The private sector, Dookhoo said, wants the proposed business school to offer degree courses in Human Resource Manage-ment, Accountancy and Marketing Management as part of its curriculum.

The initiative which Stabroek Business understands could mark the first step in a more comprehensive regime of collaboration between the UG and the private sector comes in the wake of a call made by the vice-chancellor during an address at a luncheon hosted by the GMSA on July 3 for more private sector support for UG. Carrington had told Stabroek Business earlier this week, in a brief telephone interview, that he was hoping for other areas of cooperation between the university and the private sector.

University of Guyana Campus

And in his address to the GMSA forum, he outlined a number of areas of possible collaboration between the university and the business community.

He said that there was a number of research-related issues that had a direct bearing on improving both the efficiency and the profitability of the various sub-sectors of the private sector that were worth “putting to a university with a research capacity in order to secure sensible answers”. This approach, the vice-chancellor told the private sector audience during his presentation, could also serve to build the future capacity of the university to the level where its research begins to impact on those areas that are of highest interest to the sponsoring sector.

“It would certainly be more economical for an enterprise to finance the equipment and work time for a university department to conduct work on a specific question rather than to build and equip its own laboratory for what could easily be a one-shot usage,” the vice-chancellor said, adding that “willingness to sponsor research and to finance development work” is one of the most important ways in which the business sector can develop the University of Guyana to serve the needs of the sector.

Meanwhile, Gouveia, who has been named as a member of the private sector support group to work with the university, said in his address to the GMSA luncheon that he believed UG should be run more along business lines. He told Stabroek Business that he envisaged engagements between the university and the private sector with regard to the proposed business school would involve “professionals on both sides who can arrive at an understanding of how both the University of Guyana and the private sector can benefit from   interaction even beyond the business school idea.” According to Gouveia, there was “something to be said” for the vice-chancellor’s advocacy of private sector investment in the training of its employees at the University of Guyana as well his recommendation that “the summer job type employment that many enterprises offer” be transformed into “rigorous internships that are curriculum requirements”.