UGBC student population doubles – Samad

An increase in the student population at the University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC), at Tain, has put infrastructural expansion high on the agenda after the commencement of the first semester, the campus director, Professor Diazal Samad said.
In a recent interview with Guyana Times International Samad stated that the current student population is close to 1000.
“When the people say that UGBC has about 500 students, I don’t read malice in any of that at all; I think it’s just people working with old figures… when I took over, [there was] a student population of about 442… it was a downward trend… we picked up that trend and after three years and a little bit more, our student population is close to a thousand.”
The doubling of students has been described by Samad as an explosion. The increase has been attributed to an aggressive outreach to schools, a new level of discipline on campus and the engagement of almost every organisation by UGBC, which has integrated itself in numerous community-related activities.
On the issue of the discipline, the director stated that reports of bad behaviour have been scarce over the years and he is very pleased with the conduct of students while on campus.
While boasting of the standard of lecturers’ accommodation, Samad complained about running out of space to house students and lecturers.
“We want this explosion in numbers, but we have the same buildings… we have more qualified lecturers but the same buildings… our physical buildings are simply not enough anymore… you can’t have a set of buildings that’s dedicated to 400 students, then suddenly you get a thousand with the same physical structures,” said Samad.
Samad revealed that there is a proposal to expand the facility when the science programmes are being done. “I would like to see new well-equipped laboratories… one dedicated to petroleum engineering and mining engineering, a new lab for the sciences and a new lab for agri, new classroom spaces, new storage spaces, new faculty spaces, and then we need a new classroom and office block,” he said.
Communications centre
There is also a drive to realise the establishment of a communications centre, and Samad is optimistic that funding would be made available to make the facility a reality. “We’re still waiting for capital works, so we can build our Communication Studies Centre; there is some delay there, but we’re still waiting for it and given the numbers… the numbers alone justify… but we need programmatic expansion….”
According to Samad, UGBC has received commitments from private citizens who are willing to donate lands for the erection of students’ dorms to attract students from other regions.