University of Guyana

The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for the service of the community, the nation, and of all mankind within an atmosphere of academic freedom that allows for free and critical enquiry." The University of Guyana offers more than 60 under-graduate and graduate programmes, including in Natural Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Forestry, Urban Planning and Management, Tourism Studies, Education, Creative Arts, Economics, Law, Medicine, Optometry and Nursing. Several online programmes are available, as are extramural classes through the IDCE at four locations, in Georgetown and the towns of Anna Regina, Essequibo; Linden, Upper Demerara; and New Amsterdam, Berbice. The institution has a 2016 enrollment of some 8,000 students, and it has graduated more than 20,000 students, who have gone on to represent all professional careers locally, regionally and internationally. The university is also a major contributor to the public and private sectors and to the national economy of Guyana. University of Guyana, Tain Campus University of Guyana, Tain Campus became operational in 2000. It was established with the intention of making University education more accessible to Berbicians History Cheddi Jagan, then Premier of British Guiana, considered that the University of the West Indies, to which his government had contributed since 1948, was not meeting the demand of his countrymen for higher education. On 4 January 1962, Jagan wrote to Harold Drayton, then in Ghana, to ask him to seek the advice of W. E. B. Du Bois on starting a new university.