The University of Guyana (UG) and the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) on Wednesday, July 14 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will officially introduce and enhance virtual space education through the use of digital techniques and technology.
Vice Chancellor of UG, Professor Paloma Mohamed Martin, made the announcement during the MOU’s virtual signing ceremony.
Professor Martin said this is the “third such MOU being signed this year” and there are “many more to come”.
Explaining the MOU, the professor said: |It covers joint exploration and coordination for access to faculty to act as moderators, resource persons to sit on subject panels, review committees, examining committees (chief examiners and assistant chief examiners), CXC’s research advisory group and resource persons in the development of learning support resources, item bank writers and electronic markers.
“It also solidifies UG’s role and place in collaborative Caribbean-wide pedagogical research as well as research for the digital transformation of the education system. The MOU will also see closer and more systematic and strategic collaboration on teacher development to advance teaching, learning and assessment in the Caribbean.”
Martin said this MOU also enables the recognition of cxc® associate degrees (cxc®-ad) and their future use for the purpose of matriculation by candidates.
Martin added that the MOU also facilitates the advance sharing of examination results for the purpose of matriculation as authorized by candidates, so that they can have advance placement in cases where there is high competition for limited spaces in certain programmes.
The UG officially further explains: |”Over the years, UG has been able to welcome thousands of students from all across the Caribbean to our campuses and institutes to study for over 140 different degrees using CXC’s certificates as the gold standard for the region as one of our main entry requirements. Students come to us to study disciplines ranging from certificates to PhD’s in medicine, law, agriculture, engineering, computer sciences, energy, business, tourism, psychology and social work, communications, mathematics, and education, art, environmental sciences to name a few.
“We are of course fully online now, and so it makes studying at UG using your CXC or advanced age as an entry requirement that much easier. The prevailing conditions and the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution has accelerated this as a need. And it is a good thing.
This MOU and the constellation of MOU’s it finds itself part of will not only support cross matriculation of students from one university to the next, but the formal extension of credentials of the CXC and the degree granting institutions who are its affiliates, thereby opening a world of possibilities in higher education, training, research, exchange, curriculum and human and social systems development in Guyana and the Caribbean.”
Martin said in a world that is rapidly changing amidst severe and continuous hyper-disruptions, no one can say that CXC or UG has paused or dropped the ball in fulfilling both its national mandate and its regional and international responsibilities.
