Dear Editor,
THERE is a grossly misleading headline in the news that “UG credits ‘now’ recognised by foreign universities,” that “The University of Guyana (UG) has reached a historic moment by earning institutional accreditation for the first time in its 62-year history” (GT, Jan. 21, 2025).
This is misleading, because UG is not only “now” being recognised by foreign universities. UG was always recognised by foreign universities and our degrees were accepted in foreign countries to work and study, regardless of the fact that there was no national accreditation body in existence.
How did you think almost 80 per cent of our UG graduates leave Guyana and are working and studying abroad in every imaginable country?

Is the headline suggesting that all our professionals, lawyers, engineers, social scientists, etc. with degrees from UG were not “recognised”? Are we suggesting that the folks who staff the local Accreditation Council were judging others using their “unrecognised” degrees?
I worked in The Bahamas based on two fully face-to-face degrees from UG. When I went to the USA, our degrees were recognised and we were employed and admitted to do graduate work, and I completed three more degrees there.
We were told by the US institutions that our degrees are recognised based on the fact that UG is a Commonwealth country institution as Guyana is part of the Commonwealth. UG is not a “deemed to be” university. UG had been real and stands tall among the UWI campuses which recognise our law programmes, for instance, and “transfer credits” are awarded.

UG graduates have gone abroad and distinguished themselves in many fields and areas based on the strong foundations they got from UG. One such graduate, Dr. Julie Jailall, is believed to be the only Guyanese to have received a US state’s highest honour – the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, for her distinguished work in education.

The real story is that UG has completed the paperwork required by the local accreditation body formed in 2004, long after UG was established. UG has had a long history of external reviewers, co-operation with CARICOM, Commonwealth and foreign universities and international co-operation on academic matters.

There is one local tiny university that operates out of a labour college, claiming it was the “the first and only, National Accreditation Council-Guyana (NAC), institutional and programme-accredited, multiple degrees-granting tertiary institution in Guyana.” What does that really mean? I know it could not mean they are better than UG.

I served on several accreditation teams for the USA group, Cognia/AdvancEd/Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS), which does US and international accreditations of schools and colleges. Accreditation is essentially a quality-assurance and improvement process. In Guyana now, accreditation is part of our process for post-secondary education, and that’s a good thing. Would be fun to extend it to schools too as they do in the USA. How many schools will get accredited, if we do?
Yours sincerely,
Dr Jerry Jailall
Civil Society Advocate