INFRASTRUCTURAL development of 19 buildings on the University of Guyana Turkeyen Campus is slated to commence in January next year as part of the institution’s Science and Technology Support Project (UGSTSP) which was launched in January this year with a US$10M World Bank soft loan.

This was revealed to members of the media yesterday by UG Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi who stated that they are currently going through a selection process for consultants who will do the work and that will be finalised by the end of September.
According to him, they are looking at infrastructure and the refurbishment of the science and technology buildings, as well as curriculum review and they are about to sign the contract for someone to do the curriculum review.
Professor Opadeyi added that they are also looking at research, with 19 research proposals having been submitted so far and now they are being evaluated and in two weeks they should be able to finalise the results for that.
The UGSTSP, which has counterpart funding by the Government of Guyana, is for the improvement of science and technology education and infrastructure development and institutional capacity building at UG and will last for a period of five years.

COUNTERPART FUNDING
Counterpart funding by the Guyana Government amounts to G$1.36M and repayments to the World Bank are to begin from 2021, spread over a period of 20 years.
The component for infrastructure rehabilitation will be completed at a cost of US$6.2M and would see the upgrades of existing science laboratory buildings in the targeted Faculties of Agriculture & Forestry, Natural Sciences, Technology and the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences.
The main indicators that will be used to measure success include an increase in student, faculty and private sector satisfaction with the strength of the four science faculties, new investments in buildings, equipment and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), so that they are maintained in good working order and studies produced by the project are incorporated into the UG strategic plan.