By Oscar Ramjeet
ONE, one duttie a buil dam — the longest journey starts with the first step — The University of Guyana (UG) was described as Jagan night school by Forbes Burnham when he was in the opposition in 1963, and Cheddi was premier. Most of the first intake were working students and could have attended classes only in the evenings. Dr. Jagan contacted his friend Harold Drayton who was in Ghana to assist in the establishment of the learning institution.

Drayton returned to Guyana in December 1962 and recruited a few socialist scholars from the United Kingdom and the United States to be lecturers, including Lancelot Hogben, Joan Duke and Paul Baran.

The university opened on the grounds of Queen’s College in late 1963 with what can be considered a handful of students. The first chancellor was Edgar Mortimer Duke and Lancelot Hogben, an English mathematician and biologist, the first Principal and Vice Chancellor. Now after 58 years, it boasts of 8,000 students on roll and statistics.

However, about 90 per cent of the graduates left after graduation for foreign countries to seek higher education and to secure lucrative jobs — many of them have gained their masters and doctorate degrees and are lecturing at universities or serving in senior positions in multi-national corporations.

Prior to the establishment of UG, students were forced to seek higher education overseas — mainly the University of the West Indies at Mona in Jamaica. Of course, only the well-to-do parents could have afforded to send their children to Jamaica, the United Kingdom, or Canada. Now with the advent of the University in Guyana, ordinary and ambitious students took advantage because it was affordable.

A large number of UG students came from the county of Berbice and in a move to decentralise the learning institution, a campus was set up at Tain, Port Mourant, Corentyne in Berbice . Now in its 58th year in existence, UG has 136 programmes in 60 disciplines, including medicine, law, engineering, agriculture, business, accountancy and education, among others.

President Dr Irfaan Ali, speaking at the recent UG graduation, said that higher levels of education is the key to national development and stressed that with Guyana’s move to expand and develop its resources, the university’s graduates can play an important role.

What is important in my view is that the government will have to seek ways and means to encourage the graduates to remain in the country and to those abroad to return home. This of course will have a price tag – incentives and tax-free concessions. What is more important is to ensure safety and proper health facilities, and proper education for their children.

UG was the brainchild of Dr. Jagan, but Burnham when he became Prime Minister after independence played a very important role in developing the institution and in a few short years it was recognised by the international community. Forbes went a little overboard when he insisted that students must do national service in order to graduate from the institution. He also had a slogan, ‘Education from the cradle to the grave,’ which means university education was free and this was not only for Guyanese, but all CARICOM nationals… of course, many Caribbean nationals took advantage of the free education.

What is important is that the government must ensure that the university has competent and qualified lecturers and tutors and functions without political interference. The current Vice- Chancellor is Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin, the first woman to hold such office.