Dear Editor,
The University of Guyana’s Council has shortlisted four out of a list of 19 applicants for the post of vice-chancellor of the institution. I am very pleased and humbled to know that so many individuals, most from the international arena, could show an interest in leading our prestigious university.
Those applicants are persons coming from no mean academic backdrop, some with international acclaim, well placed and well salaried.
To leave all of that to come down to our humble abode here in Guyana tells me much about my alma mater. It tells me that our university, though battered and bruised, still commands the respect of a worldwide audience and of this we are proud.
I say this because these eminent persons are well aware of all the problems facing the institution – its faults and failings financial and otherwise; the political tussle; and the negative publicity which some revel in. Yet, for all of this these sages want to come to make here their abode.
This is excellent stuff, something in which the band of naysayers should pay keen interest. They even called the institution a glorified high school. But glorified high school or junior college they should look at the list of applicants, all nineteen of them, and see the strides our university has made and then go hang their heads in shame.
The President said in his address at the university’s last convocation that he was committed to making the institution a world class entity; well this latest list of applicants is a great starter.
When all is said and done UG belongs to all of us, and we must do our part to make it a success story.
Let us put our hands to the wheel and make this institution the best there is in this part of the globe.
Yours faithfully,
Neil Adams
