Situated on a 142-acre site near the Picton Presbyterian Primary School and minutes away from the Debe High School is a jumble of concrete and metal structures, rotundas, spiral staircases covered in bright blue tarpaulin and glass reflecting the midday sunlight.
Amid the jumble is a sign—white with two shades of blue, identifying the Faculty of Law.
About 400 metres, down a roadway, near a slanted metal bar, on a wall, is another sign. This one indicating the University of the West Indies (UWI) South Campus.
On August 2, 2012, the contract to commence construction of the South Campus in Penal-Debe was signed at the Office of the Campus Principal.
It was expected that the first intake of students would begin in January 2016.
Today, the campus has a new date for its first intake—August 2017.
In a brief interview with the Sunday Guardian on Wednesday, Prof Brian Copeland, UWI’s newest chancellor, said the a decision had been made on Tuesday, and UWI was hoping to begin populating the school by August.
“We will move to the campus, get it started and whatever needs to be completed, we will deal with it as time goes by,” Copeland said.
He said the university will also be completed within its initial budget of approximately $500 million.
The campus was supposed to be ready for the academic year 2014/2016 even though $509.3 million was approved by Cabinet in September 2013. In September 2013, Cabinet approved $509.3 million for the project with an expected completion date of October 2015. Pages 42 and 43 of the 2017 Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) tabled by the government in the 2017 budget states that “an allocation of $43 million was provided in fiscal 2016 of which $9.6 million was utilised for construction, consultant, and project management fees. The building works is approximately 70 per cent completed, while outfitting of all buildings, external fixtures and external works is 46 per cent completed.”
However, work had slowed down by contractors China Jiangsu International Economic Technical Co-operation Corporation.
Copeland had said there were problems with the contractor, which he did not wish to disclose.
Copeland did not say whether the original contractor would continue the project, adding that the university would release a full statement in the coming weeks.
He said the Law faculty would be the first to move as the South campus was built with law as the flagship.
“I can tell you that people will move in August so that we will start a programme in September.
“The logistics still has to be done, time tabling, planning around students mobility and other planning.”
Copeland said the law faculty was currently cramped in St Augustine.
Other faculties are also expected to migrate to the Debe campus over time.
Building only 80
per cent complete
Last October, Copeland said the university was 80 per cent complete.
A visit from the Sunday Guardian showed that not much had improved and no workers were visible on site during the Wednesday visit.
The campus structure, even incomplete and surrounded by scaffolding and construction material, looks impressive.
The campus buildings include a moot court, administration building and law faculty buildings as well as a library, which is in an advanced stage of completion.
A student union services building, dormitories with 100 rooms and recreational facilities are also almost complete and car parks have been paved.
Former UWI chancellor Clement Sankat said the campus will have a cricket field, football facilities and a swimming pool.
In an interview last year, former Tertiary Education minister Fazal Karim said while the building was 80 per cent complete, outfitting of all buildings, external fixtures and external works were 50 per cent completed.
The South campus was first announced by the People’s Partnership coalition to be completed on lands previously owned by Caroni (1975) Ltd.
Speaking to the Guardian on Friday, Karim said a 2008 study conducted by the Business Development Office at the UWI St Augustine Campus on “Addressing Student Needs for University Education in South Trinidad concluded that a second Campus located in the country’s southern region would extend the University’s reach and would respond to the needs of key south-based industrial and business sectors while at the same time serving to reduce the congestion of the St Augustine Campus .
The UWI St Augustine campus enrolled 7,566 students in the 2000/2001 academic year and by 2010/2011 the figure climbed to 16,742—a 121 per cent increase.