University of Guyana mulling Business and Entrepreneurship school

Last Updated on Friday, 10 June 2016, 14:57 by Denis Chabrol

Coverage courtesy Fly Jamaica

Professor Ivelaw Griffith addressing the Guyana Investment Conference.

The University of Guyana (UG) is laying the groundwork for the institution to play a leading role in the development of business education in partnership with the private sector.

Newly-appointed Vice Chancellor, Professor Ivelaw Griffith announced that a feasibility study would be conducted on the establishment of a Business and Entrepreneurship School.

Addressing the ‘Guyana Means Business- Investment Conference’ that was held on Friday at the Harvard Club in New York, he said a Business and Civic Engagement Council would be established. Co-chairing that mechanism would by the Chairman of the Guyana Office of Investment (GO-Invest), Patricia Bacchus and Executive Member of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Gerry Gouveia and a representative of the Tain Campus of the University of Guyana.

“We have got, as a university, to have a strong nexus with economic and social pursuits but it’s not only the engagement with the council,” said Griffith who returns to Guyana permanently in the coming days to take up duties as the next Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana.

He urged the investors to embrace education to ensure there is an educated workforce and research and development to spur further growth and development. His “bold vision” for UG, he said, includes a bold embrace for the business sector.

The Vice Chancellor announced that a team would be going to UG in September 2016 to explore the feasibility of establishing a Business and Entrepreneurship School. “Guyana needs a business school. You can invest in that,” he said to loud applause from mainly North American-based Guyanese investors. He urged them  to inject resources in endowed professorships, scholarships, and the naming of the school. “We are not looking for chump change naming; We have  got to go big,” he said.