UWI reviews franchise rates

Avia Collinder, Business Writer

The University of the West Indies (UWI) is currently reviewing rates charged as franchise fees for its degrees and other certification programmes, franchising being an arrangement which allows colleges and institutes across the Caribbean to offer the university-designed and branded courses to thousands of Caribbean students annually.

The fees are applicable to the network of community colleges in Jamaica and five other Caribbean territories, as well as the Management Institute for National Development (MIND) and the Jamaica Constabulary Force Staff College. The current franchise fees are US$25 per course in the Eastern Caribbean and US$19 per course in Jamaica.

In addition, the three-year-old UWI Open Campus which in Jamaica allows students to pursue part-time and full-time programmes in their own geographical locations, is also considering introducing first-time franchise arrangements which are reflective of the economic cost of designing and delivering the programmes.

Programmes more accessible

The move, managers say, will make those programmes even more accessible to students who wish to study on their own time.

"We have been mandated to become self-financing (and therefore) the review of franchise fees has to do with cost recovery," according to Professor Vivienne Roberts, deputy principal of the Open Campus, headquartered in Barbados. She added the review is being carried out through in-house dialogue as well as in consultation with partner colleges. "We will do nothing unilaterally," she said.

According to the deputy principal, the UWI has been involved in franchising in the Caribbean since the late 1980s, starting with other colleges which would register to deliver the first year of degree programmes, and later with students completing programmes at one of the university's campuses.

With full degrees now available under the newer Open Campus, the fees and franchise relationship, now 20 years old in some cases, is to be overhauled.

The pending changes are expected to impact the cost of courses offered to students. The cost to students now stands at US$300 per three-credit course in the Eastern Caribbean and $47,000 in Jamaica. In most cases, 30 courses or 90 credits are required to complete a degree.

There is now a university-wide discussion regionally, but each campus has its own franchise portfolio.

Camille Morris, manager of external relations and Intra-Institute Collaboration, who is based in Jamaica, said the UWI Open Campus in Jamaica is now having discussions with local community colleges, MIND and the Jamaica Constabulary Force Staff College to which many UWI programmes are franchised, about the need for an increase in charges.

She said Jamaican programmes were always more highly subsidised than those offered in the Eastern Caribbean.

At the same time, the pressure to cover costs is greater at the Mona campus of the UWI, given that central government has cut subventions to that institution by almost $1 billion over the past three budget years.

"The strategy of the UWI was to expand access to our programmes and also build institutional capacity in terms of the community colleges and link them in to UWI," Morris said. "The ideal was to have as many in the network as possible. However, now there is a problem with capacity with the UWI itself. For Jamaican students, the franchise fee, which is a part of course fees, is $16,499 per student per year," she added.

Franchising colleges are now located in Jamaica, Antigua, St Lucia, St Vincent, the British Virgin Islands and St Kitts.

According to Professor Roberts, what the colleges get in return for the payment of the franchise fees are ready-made courses, course material and quality assurances."

Slow start

She added: "We have never before franchised the programmes of the Open Campus which is now three years old. The take-up is growing slowly and we would like more students to become involved. We offer both face-to-face short courses and bachelor's and master's degrees which are fully online. You can stay at home. If you are not able to come to a campus, there is no geographical barrier.

Professor Roberts said that "for our online and blended programmes, there are now over 4,000 students doing over 20 courses and programmes including bachelor's, associate's and master's. The entry qualifications and length of course time is the same as face-to-face with the assurance of the same quality."

The Open Campus, formally launched in Antigua & Barbuda in June 2008, allows students to organise their time to better fit in with their employment commitments with courses ranging from pre-university, professional programmes and summer programmes to graduate and undergraduate programmes, according to the campus website.

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