Government urges universities to do more to fund themselves

The Government is warning local universities that they cannot continue depending on it to fill shortfalls in financing as focus is needed on other critical areas of education.

Education Minister, Ronald Thwaites issued the warning yesterday at a Gleaner Editor’s Forum, where he also confirmed that funding has been assured for those institutions that get yearly assistance from the education ministry.

He also said there will be no cuts in the amounts provided.

However, Thwaites is warning the universities to change their operations to support themselves because the ministry needs to focus more of its resources on other sectors such as early childhood education.

Thwaites says 17 per cent of the ministry's budget goes towards tertiary-level education.

Meanwhile, the education minister is stressing that tertiary-level institutions need to improve their research and development output.

He says so far, the output from Jamaican institutions has been spotty.

The University of Technology, the University of the West Indies and the Northern Caribbean University are the leading research institutions in Jamaica.