A for­mer Di­rec­tor of the In­sti­tute of In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) Dr An­tho­ny Gon­za­les who is al­so an econ­o­mist be­lieves that there are num­ber of fac­tors that are re­spon­si­ble for the de­cline in en­rol­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) but one of the main fac­tors is the pro­lif­er­a­tion of in­sti­tu­tions that of­fer uni­ver­si­ty-lev­el cours­es and de­grees.

In the world of busi­ness, ed­u­ca­tion is a prod­uct and ser­vice and if the con­sumer is not hap­py at one in­sti­tu­tion, then there are count­less oth­er op­tions on the mar­ket both lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, Gon­za­les said.

Ac­cord­ing to a CNC3 re­port in April, UWI Vice-Chan­cel­lor, Pro­fes­sor Sir Hi­lary Beck­les, speak­ing at the AFUWI Awards/Gala in New York City said the uni­ver­si­ty has seen a dip of 2,000 in en­rol­ment across its five cam­pus­es, main­ly dri­ven by pover­ty.