evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

UWI Five Islands' School of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence — Antigua's Free-Standing AI Degree Hub

Antigua and Barbuda · St. John's · See the Antigua and Barbuda profile · See the St. John's profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 86% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

UWI's Five Islands campus in Antigua and Barbuda runs a School of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence offering Computer Science, IT and Data Science degrees; enrolment grew from 178 students at its 2019 launch to over 300% growth by 2022/23, backed by an $80m Saudi Fun

178 students
Enrolment at campus launch (2019)
300+ % growth
Enrolment growth to 2022/23 academic year
80 USD million
Saudi Fund for Development soft loan
115,000 square metres
New campus floor area financed
UWI Five Islands' School of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence — Antigua's Free-Standing AI Degree Hub

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus
Period
Campus opened 2019; School of Science, Computing and AI established 2021, ongoing
Keywords
higher education, government, regional development

Context

The University of the West Indies (UWI) opened its Five Islands Campus in Antigua and Barbuda in 2019 to serve the wider Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) sub-region, where, per UWI's own figures, only two in ten secondary-school graduates go on to post-secondary education. Its School of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence (SoSCAI) offers majors and minors in Computer Science and Information Technology, an interdisciplinary Bachelor's degree combining Data Science, Innovation Management and Computer Science, and full-time MSc programmes.

Results

Enrolment grew from 178 students at launch in 2019 to over 300% growth by the 2022/23 academic year, according to Commonwealth of Learning reporting. Expansion is financed in part by an $80 million soft loan from the Saudi Fund for Development, supporting 115,000 square metres of classrooms, ICT infrastructure and student facilities, and the government opened scholarships for Antigua and Barbuda citizens to pursue computer science and IT degrees at the campus.

Conclusions

Enrolment and funding figures are institutionally reported and verifiable via UWI and Commonwealth of Learning sources, but no independent data on graduate outcomes, employment rates, or AI-specific learning assessments has been published, so impact beyond access and enrolment growth remains undemonstrated.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus leadership, Saudi Fund for Development (financing), Government of Antigua and Barbuda (scholarships)

Conditions for success

  • substantial capital investment (soft loan) to fund purpose-built infrastructure
  • national scholarships lowering the access barrier for local students
  • positioning as a regional (OECS) hub to draw enrolment beyond a single small national market

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful