A MULTI-YEAR pay hike and the establishment of a new school of entrepreneurship are among topics high on the agenda when the Council of the University of Guyana meets on March 30th.

During that meeting, the council is expected to decide on several key aspects of the Vice-Chancellor, Ivelaw L. Griffith’s forward-looking plans for the entity’s renaissance, UG said in a statement on Tuesday.

In an invited comment, Professor Griffith said there are several critical items on the Council’s agenda aimed at addressing some of the long standing insufficiencies plaguing the faculties, staff and students. This includes a multi-year pay hike for the faculties and staff beginning 2017.

“The fact of the matter is that UG has been unable to attract the desired complement of qualified staff because of salaries that are not competitive. The staff deserves better and the students deserve better. We have to do something about that and we have to do something now,” Professor Griffith said.

According to him, hard realities will be faced and tough decisions will have to be made in order to get the university to where it should be. “If we don’t face it, we can’t fix it. I am in the business of facing and fixing. I have been here for only 8 months and there is a lot of that to do. We have to keep focused on the work to benefit our students and our staff.”

The historical budgetary shortfalls at the university, coupled with unrealistic fee structure, have affected every aspect of operations, the university’s administrator said in a statement. The administrator believes that critical revenue earning measures ought to be adopted to correct the deficiencies within the system. These measures will also come up for discussion and approval when the council meets.

“These include bringing UG’s tuition closer to the cost of its delivery over a period of years, introducing several sought-after and critical higher-education programmes, such as the Masters in psychology, Masters in Visual Communication and Masters in Agro business, training in Oil and Gas, as well as bringing online several revenue generating ventures,” the administrator said.

Two of these ventures are the much-anticipated School for Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation (SEBI), as well as the Centre for Diaspora Engagement, proposed to be launched this year. These are expected to be housed at the proposed UG Downtown Campus.

Another proposed revenue earner is the development and re-purposing of the University’s Pere Street building, whose project name is UG-IN. Phase 1 is set to be completed by the end of 2017.

Several developments are also expected to be housed at the Turkeyen and Tain Campuses, including a student-directed multi-purpose students centre, which is also in the design phase and is expected to be completed by October 2017, in addition to a student faculty housing on donated property in Berbice.

In addition, students and staff of the University have seen improved Internet capacity, a fiber optic link between the University’s campuses at Tain, Turkeyen and Johns, as well as the hiring of several better qualified staff in priority areas. The launch of The University of Guyana Press late last week, is also expected to serve a two-fold purpose of revenue-generation and promotion of research and publication by faculties of the University and other important works of Guyanese interest.