PM Opens UWI Doors To Botswana Students

Source: www.NationNews.com - Barbados Nation News

BARBADOS' RELATIONSHIP with Botswana went a step further last Friday when Prime Minister Owen Arthur announced that students from that country could study at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies [ http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/ ] under the same conditions as Barbadians.

It was unclear whether this would mean Government would bear the full economic and tuition costs for them as it did for Barbadians. But Cave Hill will start welcoming Botswanan students next academic year.

Arthur made the announcement at a ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone for the creative arts centre at the Cave Hill Campus.

In emphasising that students from Botswana would "be treated as one of us", Arthur urged the Cave Hill campus to play its part in the effort to reconnect with the African continent.

This latest statement by the Prime Minister has reinforced an earlier one he made during the recent visit of Botswana President Festus Mogae that Barbados would adopt Botswana.

Arthur also emphasised the need to establish a strong cultural industry with a potential to contribute to the economy.

Arthur said Government's $10 million injection into the centre was meant to facilitate the development of the cultural industry and a creative economy and not to spruce up the campus.[-End]