REGIONAL integration facilitator, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has called on the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) to make provisions to accommodate the top 25 Guyanese law students for 2015. Making the disclosure yesterday was Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, upon his return to Guyana from the 36th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM in Barbados.
According to the Minister, CARICOM Heads made a decision on Saturday last to render support for the top 25 law students from the University of Guyana (UG) to be facilitated at the HWLS.
He explained that while CARICOM “cannot instruct” the school to accommodate the students, the regional body remains optimistic that a favourable response will be forthcoming from ‘Hugh Wooding’.

In terms of what the future holds, and a permanent resolution to the annual issue, Minister Greenidge posited, “It has to be resolved.”
As he explained, “There is a specific mechanism put in place to report and advice on the whole issue of legal education and the role of the law school and that has not finished. So in the meantime this is the continuation of a temporary measure.”
Two weeks ago, Attorney-General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams had said he was unsure if the arrangement for automatic entry of 25 Guyanese students to the HWLS will continue in 2015.
Williams had told the National Assembly, during the second sitting of the Eleventh Parliament, that he was in receipt of a correspondence from the Council for Legal Education (CLE) on June 24 regarding the status of the agreement for the automatic entry of 25 Guyanese law students based on their Grade Point Average (GPA).
“I have been informed,” Williams said in his address, “that there is a negotiation going on in relation to the collaborative agreement between the University of the West Indies (UWI), University of Guyana (UG), and the Council for Legal Education (CLE), but they are claiming that a new proposal put up by the University of Guyana is stalling the negotiations.”
With the new academic year at the HWLS beginning in just two months, Williams gave his word to the National Assembly that he will take up the matter with the University of Guyana administration, since it is “of utmost urgency.”
While participating in the 25th Inter-Sessional CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in St Vincent and the Grenadines last year, former Attorney-General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall had revealed that there had appeared to be a resolution towards the issue of accommodating the students.
During an interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), Nandlall related that the then Chairman of CARICOM Dr. Ralph Gonsalves will be writing to the Council of Legal Education informing them that the 25 Guyanese students should be admitted for the academic year 2014.
Nandlall added that the letter will also call for a review of the provision of legal education in the region to address the expanded need for accommodation and education.
Just last month, during a meeting with the Attorney-General, 25 of the 27 Guyanese students currently attending the HWLS in Trinidad and Tobago raised several issues and concerns in relation to tuition, discrimination and disadvantages they faced in pursuit of their Legal Education Certificate at the regional institution.
Concerns regarding immigration, course content and the lateness of the Guyana students’ list to the Trinidadian immigration authorities were also raised with Williams during the meeting last month.
But of these, the most important issue was that of the TT$65,792 (G$2.2 million or USD$11,000 per student) tuition free, which the students are now required to pay in full, in September, at the beginning of the semester, as opposed to a 50 per cent of the total. The additional 50 per cent was required by January the following year.