Williams: Tertiary institutions need to rethink business models
Published:Saturday | December 19, 2020 | 12:15 AMPaul Clarke/Gleaner Writer
Education Minister Fayval Williams says a new business model is required for tertiary institutions to avoid a recurrence of the situation at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, where plummeting receipt of tuition fees has forced it to delay the traditional early payment of salaries this month.
“The education sector has been hardest hit by COVID-19, not just in Jamaica but across the world, where we are seeing that universities that depend on students paying tuition, and with the fact that students are not there physically, has called into question the business model of these entities, our tertiary institutions also,” Williams said.
She told The Gleaner that with the changing dynamics and the negative financial impact that the pandemic has caused, management at the island’s tertiary institutions must begin to rethink the future.
Staff at the university were advised on Wednesday that they would not get their scheduled Yuletide payout up to yesterday, with a circular issued by Mona Campus Registrar Donovan Stanberry stating that “the delay is due to the difficulties now being experienced collecting tuition”.
Stanberry assured staff that they would be paid on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, three days before Christmas Day.
Online teaching
To counter the loss of tuition generated during the pandemic, several overseas universities, including several Ivy-League institutions in the United States, have opted to offer students discounts on tuition fees. Others have moved courses online to maintain income generation.
Williams said that going forward, there has to be a greater acceptance of online teaching and learning, reasoning that the fact that students have this experience now, they are seeing that they are learning just as well and even better in some cases.
“There will be this blended approach in our tertiary institutions and, certainly, across the entire education system, where we going to have virtual and physical approaches to educating our people,” the minister said.
What that new model will look like and how it will take shape is uncertain.
“I am not sure, but from someone who understands the financial spend of these institutions, there has to be some serious consideration about what structure will work best to satisfy both students and staff post-COVID,” stated Williams.
While declining to state the gap in projections for overall tuition revenues or fee payments in specific programmes, Stanberry noted that The UWI had offered a number of concessions, including a downward revision of payment plan from 25 per cent to 15 per cent.