Lack of interest in Caribbean university funded by Bermuda
A lack of interest from Bermudian students in attending a prestigious Caribbean university has led to the renaming of an annual government scholarship.
The award for undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of the West Indies has been given out by the Ministry of Education since 2011, with Bermuda’s taxpayers contributing to the annual budget of the institution in exchange for reduced tuition fees for locals.
Now the University of the West Indies Scholarship has been formally replaced by the Caribbean Schools Award ― and a public access to information disclosure has revealed just how little uptake there was for the UWI scheme.
The Government’s relationship with “world-class institution” UWI was cited by former deputy premier Walter Roban as a key benefit of Bermuda’s associate Caricom membership, as he announced the Government’s plan to become a full member of the regional bloc.
As recently as 2024, Diallo Rabain, then the education minister, described an “enduring partnership” with UWI.
However, the Pati disclosure from the education ministry to The Royal Gazette listed no applications for the scholarship from UWI students in recent years and a lack of official record-keeping about Bermudians attending the school.
The ministry held no records about the number of Bermudians studying at UWI at present or how many had graduated in the past decade.
It revealed that there were no applications for its UWI scholarship at all in 2024 and none from anyone attending the university in 2025.
The ministry was asked for the number of applicants for the scholarship in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and responded with “N/A” — not applicable.
The Pati request aimed to determine whether the reduced fees paid by Bermudian students at UWI had any links to Bermuda’s Caricom status.
It sought any communication between the education ministry and UWI since January 1, 2024, including about fees payable by Bermudian students as well as a record of fees that Bermudian students pay at present, and any proposed change to fees should Bermuda become a full member of the Caribbean Community.
The ministry replied “N/A” to all and its information officer wrote that the records requested did not exist.
There was no response to questions sent to the ministry, via the communications department, about how much the Government pays annually to UWI, whether full Caricom membership would lead to a further reduction in tuition fees or whether financial contributions from the public purse are made to any other university.
Asked if the UWI scholarship had been dropped, a ministry spokeswoman pointed to comments made in January 2025 by education minister Crystal Caesar on a “decline in applicants in recent years” and a broadening of the criteria to include students at other Caribbean universities.
UWI, headquartered in Mona, Jamaica, is a not-for-profit institution providing higher education to 17 countries, including Bermuda, which contribute financially to its budget.
It is considered the best university in the Caribbean and gets a ranking of 1,201-1,500 in the 2026 rankings of Times Higher Education, suggesting it falls within the top 15 per cent of universities worldwide.
Notable Bermudian graduates include forensic physician Amne Osseyran and Gabrielle Cann, the Government’s first director of labour.
Ewart Brown, when he was premier, signed a memorandum of understanding with the university’s vice-chancellor in 2010.
The deal enabled students applying to UWI and sponsored by the Government to get a 15 per cent discount on fees, while the Government promised to contribute to the university’s revenues.
The first four recipients of the education ministry’s UWI scholarships programme were announced in 2011.
Mr Rabain relaunched the scholarship in 2019, explaining that though Bermudians attending UWI had benefited from “preferred pricing” since 2010, the “number of students has not been consistent, and this is something the [Bermuda] College, the Ministry of Education and the University of West Indies have sought to change”.
A $35,000 pot from the ministry’s scholarship fund was allocated to help three students attend one of UWI’s physical campuses, with the funding covering 80 per cent of educational expenses and students paying the other 20 per cent.
Progressive Labour Party MP Christopher Famous said at the time that it was a “monumental” announcement, adding: “Over the next few months and years, there will be a greater emphasis on the University of West Indies, with UWI showcasing what it has to offer to Bermudian students.”
In November 2023, announcing the Government’s decision to pursue full membership of Caricom, Mr Roban outlined the benefits “received by Bermuda” through associate membership of the regional bloc.
He told Parliament: “We have re-established the opportunity for Bermudians to benefit from the University of West Indies, a world-class institution, at a lower cost than in other countries.”
The amount of the UWI scholarship reduced over time; there were three annual awards offered in 2024, each valued at $7,500, for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
According to the Pati disclosure, there were five scholarship applicants in 2025 but none were enrolled at UWI, so consideration was “given to students who are studying at other institutions in the Caribbean”.
The scholarship that year went to a student pursuing a medical degree at St George’s University, an international for-profit medical school in Grenada.
Mr Famous said this month that he had no information on how many Bermudians were presently at UWI, but added: “My stance from 2019 remains the same. UWI is a world-class university that Bermudians should look to going to.”
The most recent fee schedule for the University of the West Indies, from May 2025, lists Bermuda as one of 14 “non-campus contributing countries” that “contribute to the budget of the University of West Indies”.
UWI’s most recent publicly available financial report, from July 2023, shows the Government of Bermuda owed the university US$38,699 at the end of that month.
Earlier reports show that between 2018 and 2021 Bermuda made no payments and its bill rose to $110,569. UWI agreed to write off half of that in October 2021 and the remaining amount was paid by the Government.
The 2023 report states: “Annually, governments are provided with a finalised bill, which is determined for the landed campuses on the basis of actual student numbers for the respective countries and the UWI’s approved budgets.
“The billing for the [online] Open Campus (subsequently renamed the Global Campus) is an allocation of the cost of its operations.”
The other countries contributing financially to UWI are Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Turks & Caicos.
There was no response from the Ministry of Education to questions about how much taxpayers contributed to UWI each year and whether any other universities received government funding.
The Bermuda College temporarily suspended its Diploma in Education programme, run in association with UWI, in 2022. A college spokesman told the Gazette last month that the partnership with the university no longer existed.
He added: “At present the college does not have any partnerships with UWI but is looking at setting up articulation agreements in the future.”
The Gazette has asked UWI for comment.
• To view the education ministry’s Pati response, see Related Media
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