The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) Global Campus in Jamaica has inked its latest global partnership with the University of Arizona (UArizona), headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.

The exclusive regional agreement (non-exclusive across the wider Commonwealth) will make it possible for students across the Caribbean, from approximately 20 countries including Jamaica, to pursue proposed dual or UArizona stand-alone bachelor’s and master’s degrees from either the UArizona or both of these highly reputable and institutionally accredited higher education institutions, without leaving their country.

“The university was once again breaking new frontiers and boundaries, as an entrepreneurial pacesetter in developing and implementing such an imaginative transnational higher education partnership, including projected arrangements for team-teaching and collaborative research,”said Dr Winston Adams, the UCC’s founder and group executive chairman.

“It’s all about what’s possible and what lies just beyond the imagination.”

Adams added: “Like the UArizona, we pride ourselves on spurring disruptive innovation, creating new opportunities, igniting success and making a meaningful impact in people’s lives.”

The new partnership with the UCC Global Campus, ultimately also encompassing the wider Commonwealth region, to explore in the future countries in Africa and South East Asia, will add to the rapidly growing University of Arizona Microcampus Network, with some 650-plus locations worldwide.

“Not only does an Arizona Microcampus location help solve the mobility challenges of today caused by COVID-19, it is a meaningful and long-term effort at meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal of providing accessible quality education to the world,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins.

The University of Arizona is ranked in the Top 100 Best Global Universities by US News and World Report, and is among the Top one per cent of 20,000-plus universities worldwide, according to the Center for World University.

With an estimated 400 million people in developing countries lacking access to higher education, US universities seeking to internationalise have only scratched the surface of the opportunities to help meet the world’s need for affordable, globally accessible and high-quality education. 

A few US and UK universities have set up international branch campuses, including at least four at the UCC’s main campus itself, since 2000.

It is estimated that at least 5,000 Jamaicans traditionally migrate each year to study in the US, but the current pandemic has changed the landscape. Most potential Jamaican and Caribbean high school graduates and other Caribbean nationals who would have set their sights on migrating to the US this year, to pursue international US degrees, will be unable to do so, and will therefore be remaining at home.

Moreover, the cost of a US education vastly exceeds per capita income in the majority of developing countries, and most US universities offer limited scholarships to international students, generally expecting them to pay full tuition. 

Answering the call to provide greater access to a top US education, the UArizona has developed a new model for transnational education through its UArizona Microcampus Network.

“The events that caused the current situation in international education have hastened the dawn of a post-mobility world in which physical travel is unnecessary for the creation and transmission of knowledge across borders,” said Brent White, vice provost of global affairs at UArizona.

“Almost overnight, courses have transitioned to online, and international students are continuing to study safely and affordably while remaining at home in their own countries. We want to help them achieve their dreams of a US degree, no matter the circumstances.”

A regional network of microcampuses

As a University of Arizona Microcampus Location, UCC will leverage the latest technology to deliver cutting-edge education to high school graduates and working adults online, or in a blended delivery format, on a full-time or part-time basis, throughout Jamaica and the wider Caribbean region, while preserving an in-class, on-campus experience.

Moreover, this new University of the Commonwealth Caribbean/University of Arizona partnership will engage select UCC international online & local faculty and UArizona faculty, who will develop and deliver the anticipated dual-degree or stand alone degree programmes together, co-teaching courses online and onsite in the Caribbean. Students will be able to take UCC courses at the same time they take UArizona courses, allowing for fully integrated dual-degree programmes.

Unlike studying abroad or taking traditional courses at home, this collaborative approach to programme development and teaching will also allow students in the Caribbean to learn about course materials situated in the local context of their home countries, and from an international perspective. 

Because the significant cost-savings of the model will enable UArizona and UCC to set tuition at local market rates, this greatly increases access and affordability by eliminating the substantial costs of living abroad. Annual tuition for recent high school graduates and working adults across the Caribbean for a proposed dual degree (i.e. two bachelor’s degrees or a bachelor’s and an accelerated master’s degree), which can be completed in only four to five years, could range between US$5,000 per annum to US$7,500/year for dual bachelor’s degrees, or US$9,000/year for a stand-alone degree, or US$12,000 for an entire 18-month stand-alone masters degree from the University of Arizona.

The subsidised tuition for a UArizona bachelor’s degree can be compared with the standard US$37,000 per annum for the identical undergraduate degree offered on the main campus in Arizona – excluding other major costs such as accommodation, living expenses, travel, etc. that would also be incurred.

As a result of this unique model, the local and regional tuition for either dual degrees or stand-alone bachelor’s degrees will, therefore, only be a small fraction of the tuition in the US, as all students successfully admitted will receive a 45 per cent – 55 per cent UCC Foundation US Inc. tuition scholarship.

Sustainable internationalisation

Beyond fostering top international education and even greater career competitiveness for graduates worldwide, this new innovative partnership will also act as a hub for joint faculty research in the Caribbean – a collaboration that will naturally extend from a teaching model that will cultivate close working relationships between the University of Arizona and the UCC faculty.

Additionally – as the model is financially self-sustaining – it will promote sustainable internationalisation, providing a platform and physical location for faculty training and exchange, and other forms of engaged learning.

The model also enables mobility, as UCC Global Campus and UArizona Microcampus students in the Caribbean will be free to study at the main campus in Tucson for a summer or a semester, at the same local tuition rate as during their programme of study.

The programme is scheduled to begin in Jamaica during September and November 2021, and in January 2022, and in other Caribbean islands, during November 2021 and January 2022.

The UCC estimates that approximately 5,000 Caribbean students will initially be targeted for entry by the spring semester of 2022.

Applications for Jamaican students will tentatively open on May 24, 2021 via the UCC/UCC Global Campus website. The first virtual information session is planned for June 1, 2021.