Financing Tertiary Education in the Caribbean: The Case of the University of the West Indies

Andrew Downes is Professor of Economics and Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies. He has degrees in economics from the Universities of the West Indies and Manchester. He is the author of several monographs and articles covering such area as labour economics, macroeconomics, development economics and applied econometrics. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies. He is the author of a report for the UNDP on the Millennium Development Goals in the Caribbean.

The Obamas Were Not as Lucky as Barbadians

Submitted by Douglas

We only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago,” Obama told an audience of mostly students – President Obama

Please click on the link to see how President Obama and his wife fared in paying for their college education – in  the richest country in the world. Read what he said last year in April.

We in Barbados still have a government committed to continue paying the full cost of our tertiary education over the next year in spite of the continuing recession.

However, even from August 2014, when students are asked to pay only a mere 15% (for example, about bds. $23,000 over a 4-year period – in the arts, humanities or social sciences), they will still be far better off than their US counterparts, who will pay an average of US$104,000  over the same 4 year period.  And, that cost increases exponentially once the more sought after colleges come into play; not to mention the tremendously high cost associated with the ivy league colleges.