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Caribbean Maritime Institute

CMI GAINS University status

CM Institute
The Caribbean Maritime Institute in Jamaica gained university status in February this year in what executive director Dr Fritz Pinnock has described as “a transformational move”.

Dr Pinnock said the change would bring a new approach to education and training, which he said had been treated as separate in the past.

“Training is an integral part of education,” said Dr Pinnock. “It is about the total person. It is not just about giving persons a certificate at the end of a period of study, but how you make them better human beings…That is what the CMU of the future wishes to do.”

The Caribbean Maritime University Bill was approved by the Senate on 24 February. The senator who piloted the legislation, the Hon. Ruel Reid, Minister of Education, said it represented an opportunity for the CMU to present itself as a niche market university, able to attract greater numbers of foreign students. Senator Reid also said university status would open the way to international grant funding, especially from the European Union and other international funding agencies.

Funding

At the end of February a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology (MSET) and the Universal Service Fund (USF) at the ministry in Kingston. The agreement was accompanied by a donation of $310 million by the USF to the new university. This funding will allow the university to build and operate a number of facilities at its location at Palisadoes, in East Kingston, including a national maritime port operations simulator training center, a regional training laboratory and a geographic information system (GIS) center.

Over the years, the CMI (now the CMU) has expanded its range of programs to include degrees at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. It has gained national, regional and international recognition by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport of the UK, the International Maritime Organization, CARICOM and the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden.