Universities running on empty beg for bailouts

Jamaica’s tertiary education institutions are wilting under the heavy weight of debt occasioned by the worsening economic conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Erica Virtue for The Gleaner.

The University of the West Indies and Northern Caribbean University recently begged the government for multibillion-dollar bailouts during a Gleaner Editors’ Forum, while the University of Technology, Jamaica said that it had liquidated more than a billion dollars’ worth of assets to offset a massive revenue shortfall.

Revenue streams have been disrupted as money-earning programmes and business opportunities closed, while only a trickle has come from the Students’ Loan Bureau to pay for students who are soldiering through the hazards of online schooling.
Full report on The Gleaner site