Editorial | CMU’s mission

The Gleaner welcomes, and in a sense feels itself vindicated by the announcement, that the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) is establishing a satellite campus in Suriname, in conjunction with that country’s Maritime Authority and its Foundation for Logistics Training.

Our surprise is that this significant offshoring by CMU in a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) didn’t start across the Corentyne River in Guyana, and that it didn’t happen years earlier. Approximately a decade ago, as it emerged clear that Guyana would be a major petroleum producer, and that the prospects also looked good for Suriname, we urged the Jamaican government and its trade and investment promotions agency (JAMPRO), as well as the island’s private sector, to try get ahead of the pack in those economies for the provision of goods and services that the island could offer.

It is very much for the same reasons that we urged attention on Guyana that the CMU, according to its president, Andrew Spencer, is making its foray into Paramaribo.

That is, like Guyana, Suriname, with its emerging oil sector, will need significant numbers of people with the skills in which the CMU has the capacity to train: engineering, manufacturing design, computer aided technologies, seafaring skills and logistics management.

Indeed, two years ago, as the trade and investment minister, Aubyn Hill, prepared to lead a mission to Guyana, The Gleaner repeated its calls for engagement in that country and elsewhere, saying: “It is possibly still not too late for the institutions like the University of Technology (UTech), the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) and HEART/NSTA Trust to attempt to develop partnerships with the Guyanese authorities and their education institutions. Moreover, trained Jamaicans in related fields might consider job prospects in Guyana in both technical areas in services. Indeed, prospects for the latter have widened since advances in digital technologies made working from remote locations increasingly viable.”

GENUINE CARIBBEAN INSTITUTION

Happily, as Professor Spencer noted this week at the announcement of the Suriname initiative, the CMU is well on its way to becoming a genuine Caribbean institution, thus lessening the need for each territory to develop its own centre for maritime and related training. Which is an unpretentious example of the advancement of functional integration/cooperation in the region.

Explained Professor Spencer: “We are a Caribbean maritime university, and the model we’ve been using, so far, is to partner with institutions. For example, the Sir Arthur Lewis College in St Lucia, and in a two-plus-two arrangement, the University of Guyana, as well as Antigua State College ... we’ve been doing a lot of that throughout the region.”

The point is that CMU’s courses are not only accredited by the University Council of Jamaica, its programmes meet the standards of the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers. Few other institutions anywhere in this region have the capacity to train seafarers to the level demanded by the IMO convention, or in specialised maritime and related technologies.

But there are great lessons and warnings in the CMU’s success, which we hope are appropriately learnt, lest that success becomes the seed for the institution’s undoing.

First, though, it is important to recognise the CMU’s establishment and evolution of Jamaica’s capabilities, what is possible when there is vision, but of the pitfalls that lurk in the absence of weak institutional and regulatory oversight.

Initially, set up as the Jamaica Maritime Training Institute (JMTI), the school was a partnership between Norway and Jamaica. Or perhaps more correctly, it was one of those initiatives that grew out of the personal relationships of leaders; in this case Jamaica’s Michael Manley and Norway’s Odvar Nordli.

The idea was to train officers and other seafarers for the now defunct state-owned Jamaica Merchant Marine. Its focus broadened beyond Jamaica to the Caribbean, and ultimately from a tertiary institute to a full-fledged university. This evolution has been over 44 years.

DARK AND DISPIRITING TIMES

Notably, the 2010s were both exciting as well as dark, and dispiriting times for CMU. The institution’s former president, Fritz Pinnock, led a frenetic expansion and the lifting of its profile as part of a strategy of preparing Jamaica for the global shift towards a logistics dependent economy. The image of CMU students dressed in uniforms that marked them as maritime cadets projected a sense of seriousness and discipline about the institution.

Unfortunately, Mr Pinnock and education officials, including the former minister, Ruel Reid, were charged for fraud and corruption, and subsequent audits unearthed major management and accountability challenges at the CMU.

The institution’s image was restored by a new council led by Professor Gordon Shirley, a former principal of the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), who is CEO of the Port Authority of Jamaica. Prof Shirley installed as interim president a former UWI colleague, retired head of the Mona School of Business, Professor Evan Duggan.

Professor Spencer has apparently continued the revitalisation.

Our caution to Professor Spencer, however, is to be clear about his objectives. His personal strengths and ambitions blur institutional goals or divert the CMU from what ought to be the real mission.

Professor Spencer’s background is in tourism management training and he joined the CMU from the Mona School of Business. That shouldn’t cause the CMU to be blown off course, away from maritime-related education and training.

In other words, he must avoid the University of Technology (UTech) syndrome, where that polytechnic appeared at one point to have ambitions of converting itself to a kind of liberal arts university. UTech seems to be attempting to claw its way back from that folly and waste of energy and resources.