The University of the West Indies (UWI) on Thursday announced that it has evolved as a “multi-lingual” institution, with a new policy that will require all new undergraduate students to take up a foreign language and become “conversation competent”.
The requirement comes under The UWI’s Foreign Language Policy for its five regional campuses which was approved and is being implemented after in-depth internal strategic planning and discussion with regional education stakeholders, the university said.
“Going forward, the expectation is that all UWI graduates will be at least conversation competent in a language other than English,” said Pro Vice-Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies, Professor Justin Robinson.
The UWI currently has teaching and learning departments on its campuses that produce substantial numbers of graduates with specialised foreign language degrees. Majors and minors in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin) and teaching competencies in others like Arabic, German, Hindi, Korean, and Yoruba have long been commonplace.
