— University of Bedfordshire helping to close national human resource gaps

By Tajeram Mohabir
CAPITALISING on Guyana’s thrust to develop its human resources, the University of Bedfordshire, UK, has introduced a number of graduate programmes geared at building local expertise, particularly in the area of business.

These programmes include general Master’s in Business Administration (MBA), MBA (Marketing), MBA (Human Resource Management), MBA (Oil and Gas) and a Master’s in Education Leadership. They are being offered through Nations University, New Market Street, Georgetown.

The MBA programmes were introduced in late 2017, and to date, some 137 students have been registered in the various degree programmes.
Since the introduction, more than 25 students have successfully completed their studies and are eagerly waiting to graduate from the top UK university.

Also, recently, ‘Nations’ has introduced a University of Bedfordshire (UoB) top-up degree programme in Business Administration and is in discussion with the British school to introduce programmes at the doctoral level.
UoB Vice-chancellor Bill Rammell, who was accompanied by Professor Helen Bailey, Executive Dean of Academic Partnership on a recent visit to Guyana, lauded the fledgling partnership with ‘Nations.’

He pointed out that one of the goals of the UoB is to widen access to higher education throughout the world.
Rammell is a former British Member of Parliament (MP), who also served as Minister for Further and Higher Education and Minister in the Foreign Office and for the Armed Forces in the Labour Government. Rammell told the Guyana Chronicle that UoB seeks to deliver the best possible experience for international students.

The aim, he said, is to transform lives, promote employability and engage in world-leading research.
The University of Bedfordshire, which has campuses at Luton, Bedford, Milton Keynes and Aylesbury, boasts a proud heritage of delivering top-quality education, dating back to more than a century ago.

It has a student population of some 20,000 from over 120 countries with education partners in China, the Middle East, Europe and South-East Asia.

QUEEN’S PRIZE
In 2013, UoB won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize, the highest form of national recognition for universities in the UK, in recognition of its pioneering research.
According to the university’s website, its research subjects range from organ donation to cyberstalking to smart city development to Parkinson’s disease and much more.

Professor Bailey told the Guyana Chronicle that apart from Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago also offers graduate programmes from the UoB and soon, St Lucia, another Caribbean country, would be following suit.
She said the British university wants to have a deeper understanding of the people and culture of the Caribbean, as it is hoping to have a noticeable presence in this part of the world.

Expansion of reach and deepening of cultural understanding of nations are an integral part of the UoB’s developmental agenda, which includes providing learners a quality international education in a multi-cultural learning environment.
‘Nations’ has also been in expansion drive. Currently, the western section of the school is being extended to accommodate 26 more classrooms.

This aside, in recent years, the school has partnered with top educational institutions to offer new programmes at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Programmes offered at the top private school include MBAs, LLB, LLM, MA Education, BA (top up) Business Administration and a number of advanced diplomas and certificates from various awarding bodies, including the University of London, the University of Cambridge, ACCA, the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Association of Business Executives (ABE).

The UoB programmes offered through ‘Nations’ are available at very competitive rates compared to universities in the U.S., UK and Europe.
“Nowhere in the world can you study for an internationally recognised and accredited MBA for less than US$8, 000,” ‘Nations’ principal, Dr Brian O’ Toole had told the Guyana Chronicle in a recent interview.