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As the Gov­ern­ment pre­pares to un­veil its 2026 Bud­get on Mon­day, a sense of un­ease hangs over the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), St Au­gus­tine cam­pus. While some stu­dents ex­pressed cau­tious op­ti­mism, oth­ers voiced deep anx­i­ety.

For many stu­dents, the com­ing fis­cal plan is not just about num­bers; it’s about sur­vival.

Guardian Me­dia gath­ered six stu­dents from five fac­ul­ties—in­clud­ing Nurs­ing, Com­put­er Sci­ence, Ac­count­ing, The­atre Arts, and In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions—to gauge ex­pec­ta­tions ahead of Bud­get Day. Their dis­cus­sions re­vealed a gen­er­a­tion caught be­tween hope and hard­ship, ques­tion­ing whether pol­i­cy­mak­ers tru­ly un­der­stand the re­al­i­ties of youth liv­ing un­der ris­ing costs, lim­it­ed jobs, and crum­bling in­fra­struc­ture.