University of Belize proposed

The Higher Education Inter-ministerial Task Force held its inaugural meeting this morning at the Belize Institute of Management. The Task Force is responsible for upgrading, reorganizing and incorporating the Belize College of Agriculture, The Belize Teachers College and other institutions like the School of Nursing so that tertiary level institutions can establish the University of Belize. To expedite the work of the Inter-ministerial Task Force, the Ministry of Education has established the University of Belize Secretariat. Doctor Roy Young who is the Director told us more about the inaugural meeting and about the benefits of the university.

Doctor Roy Young, Director of Secretariat

“This is the inaugural meeting of the task force and we are familiarizing the task force members with the task that they are supposed to be doing. There has been several discussions around about what the University of Belize will look like. What is it going to do and so on. And, really nobody knows. So the task of the task force would be to get that job done and so we are going to be determining the methodology on how we are going to go about doing that.

The University will provide more opportunities for our students who leave secondary school to go on to a higher education. And, in addition it is going to be more economical for students to pursue their education.”

The Inter-ministerial Task Force consists of representatives from various Ministries of Government as well as members of the private sector, the N.G.O. community and community leaders. Dr. Young says the University of Belize is in no way intended to replace the University College of Belize but will help widen the range of degrees being offered to Belizean students.