University of Belize has a new provost

The University of Belize has a new provost. Former President of the University College of Belize, Dr. Angel Cal has succeeded Marco Olsen of South America. Cal, in 2002 was replaced as president and moved on to head a Maya History project. He resurfaced a couple years later to co-ordinate the Quality Assurance Unit at U.B. Today News Five caught up with Cal who spoke of where he’d like to see the university head during his one year tenure.

Dr. Angel Cal, U.B. Provost
“We expect to apply for accreditation, institutional accreditation in 2011. so in preparation, for the last two years we have been involved in putting in place necessary structures, mechanisms, procedures. We’ve been doing programme reviews, formal programme evaluations. We’ve started on that. We’ve been setting our own standards informed by regional and international standards. We’ve been reviewing our syllabi, looking at the curriculum.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“Are we gonna see the university, at some point, be a little more accommodating to part time students? After all, the history of the university goes way back and it’s been built on part time students.”

Dr. Angel Cal
“We’ve always tried to accommodate part time students. More than half of our students continue to be part time.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“But the linkages with the university and the part time students, the linkages are growing ever weaker.”

Dr. Angel Cal
“That is true only to some extent, possibly true in Belize City where there is less of a direct visibility of our services but that has to improve. That has to improve. We’ve lost “quite a few number of students because of that.”

The University of Belize is an amalgamation of five tertiary level institutions; the University College of Belize, the Bliss School of Nursing, the Belize Technical College, the Belize Teacher’s College and the Belize College of Agriculture. U.B. was established in August 1999.