(Barbados Nation) With women accounting for more than 60 per cent of the student body, the University of the West Indies is turning to MACHO, a special initiative, to reverse the declining presence of young males at the Cave Hill campus.

Sir George Alleyne, UWI Chancellor, is convinced it’s a sound move that would get young men to stay in school or get them off the street corners and back into the classroom while showing the world that instead of wringing its collective arms about the disproportionate female-male ratio, the UWI can deal with the problem.

“What MACHO, Males At Cave Hill Operations, involves is aggressively going out and approaching males in the communities, in the schools and trying to show them that opting for going on to the University is not a nerdish thing, it is not something only for females,” Sir George told the SUNDAY SUN after chairing the UWI Council meeting where the issue was discussed recently.

MACHO is already beginning to have an impact.

“There is evidence right away of an increase in the male applications to enter Cave Hill,” the Chancellor reported. “In Jamaica, there is something similar, both at the level of the University administration and the students themselves who are going into the communities, going into high schools and tutoring males so they can do better in their exams.”

Sir George acknowledged that UWI was “sensitive” to the imbalance in the female-male ratio and that was why it was trying to do something about it. Females now account for more than 60 per cent of the 41 000 students enrolled at the UWI in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados.

“Not only are we sensitive to it but we are taking steps to address it,” he said. “We have to deal with the input that we have. What we are trying to do is to increase the number of qualified male applicants to the University and I think both of those programmes are really excellent. To have the students themselves involved is gratifying.”