Minister of Education Ruel Reid says the tertiary education system is being restructured to better meet the country's needs in the 21st century and beyond.

He said the objective is to better enable the sector to “lead the way in positioning the rest of the education system to prepare for the future as well as retrofitting and re-aligning its programmes to meet the needs of the labour market over the short and long-term”.

“This will herald a change in the formulation of the entire sector (and) will include the re-organisation of the governance arrangements for oversight, funding from government, provision of grants, scholarships and bursaries for students and re-organisation of individual institutions in keeping with the mandate and needs of the sector,” Reid outlined.

He was addressing the University Council of Jamaica’s (UCJ) Strategic Planning Retreat held recently at the Iberostar Rose Hall Suites Hotel in Montego Bay, St James.

Reid said a draft policy has been prepared, outlining the necessary steps towards the establishment of a higher education commission, which will provide oversight of the sector.

“This arrangement will see a full restructuring of the bodies that currently provide oversight and will also call for new legislation,” he indicated.

As part of the re-organisation, the sector will be referred to as the ‘higher education” system and will incorporate academic, vocational, professional education and training, as well as lifelong learning in a more comprehensive way.

The education minister further informed that efforts will be made to broaden the appeal of the various institutions to better attract the interest of the international community.

“The system shall be internationalised through the inclusion and integration of regional and global perspectives and dimensions into its systems, policies, curricula, and processes,” he noted.