An Innovation Report Interview with Dr. Winston I. Adams, OD, JP — Group Executive Chairman, University of the Commonwealth Caribbean

---

Innovation Report: The University of the Commonwealth Caribbean has grown in just over two decades into the largest private university of its kind in Jamaica and the region. What is the identity behind that growth, and what role is UCC playing in shaping a Caribbean knowledge economy?

Dr. Winston Adams: I want to say that this conversation is both timely and important. The Caribbean cannot build an innovation economy unless we deliberately strengthen the institutions that produce talent, research partnerships, entrepreneurial activity, international collaboration, and workforce readiness. That is very much the space UCC has sought to occupy for many years.

At UCC, we have never seen ourselves as a simple degree-awarding institution — and that is one of the things that differentiates us from the competition in Jamaica and across the region. We see ourselves as a nation-building and region-building institution, an entrepreneurial and enterprising university. That position is consistent with Innovation Report's stated goal of building a platform for collaboration in education, research, and innovation across CARICOM, which is why I was pleased to learn more about your publication.

On how Jamaica's innovation and knowledge economy is shaping our priorities: The UCC defines its role simply. We are not only preparing people for the economy as it exists today — we are helping Jamaica and the wider Caribbean build the economy we need for tomorrow. We did not start out as UCC in 1992. We began as the Institute of Management Sciences, later acquired the Institute of Management and Production, and the two amalgamated to form the University College of the Caribbean, which evolved into today's University of the Commonwealth Caribbean.

That mission means three things. First, widening access to quality education at scale. Second, producing graduates who are workforce-ready for a technology-driven economy. Third, acting as a bridge between academia, industry, government, and international partners. We were perhaps the first institution in Jamaica, back in 1998, to actively build international partnerships with overseas universities and other tertiary institutions in the US and Europe. That concept was not common — universities in Jamaica and the Caribbean were generally not entrepreneurial by mindset. We sought to change that, and it has helped accelerate our growth. We are now the largest private, for-profit, entrepreneurial university of its kind in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Because of those three pillars, our priorities increasingly centre on flexible delivery, online and blended learning, micro-credentials, applied industry-facing programmes, and the responsible integration of AI into teaching, learning, and administration. I am particularly excited about AI's impact on universities. We are somewhat behind our counterparts in North America and Europe — in Jamaica and the Caribbean, the AI conversation is still relatively new among institutions. But we have already established a functional AI task force and are exploring use cases across the university. We are proactive, and we are building on that.

We believe the university of the future must be more agile, more digitally enabled, more internationally connected, and much more tightly aligned to labour market needs. That alignment has historically been a gap for tertiary institutions in Jamaica and the Caribbean. Our institution is accredited by the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) — one of only four or five of the 80-plus registered tertiary institutions locally to hold full institutional accreditation, which we achieved in record time. We are also registered by the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission as a university.

Our UCC Global online platform highlights 100% online, on-demand, self-paced options — exactly the flexibility Caribbean learners now require. We are building this out further, including partnerships with Online Programme Managers (OPMs), which will help take our programmes globally. We successfully established our first OPM partnership some years ago with one of the world's largest OPMs in the UK and US — Higher Education Partners, HEP. This was the first such partnership in the Caribbean. AI is a strategic direction for us, including placing our graduates at the forefront of the global AI revolution.

In short, our role as an entrepreneurial university is to democratise opportunity across Jamaica and the Caribbean, modernise workforce preparation, and turn Caribbean talent into Caribbean productivity. We have tremendous talent in the Caribbean; the challenge has been converting it into productivity. Jamaica's productivity ratio is relatively low, and with AI we expect to see efficiency and productivity gains across industries — though adoption has been slow. UCC is trying to be at the forefront of stimulating that change.

---

Innovation Report: Tell us about the biggest challenges facing higher education in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, and what steps you are taking to address them.

Dr. Winston Adams: The biggest challenge is not a single issue but a dangerous combination: limited access, uneven affordability, weak alignment with the future labour market, and slow institutional adaptation to change. Too many capable people in Jamaica and across CARICOM are still excluded from quality tertiary education by cost, geography, scheduling, or inadequate preparation.

Access to tertiary and indeed quality tertiary education in Jamaica remains tragically low. When we entered the market in 1992 through the Institute of Management Sciences, access stood at about 4% of the eligible age cohort. The most recent figures from 2021–2022 put us at approximately 29% — still well below the Caribbean norm of at least 40%. Barbados and others are averaging 40% and above. We have made significant strides, and UCC has had a real impact, but we still have some way to go.

At the same time, employers increasingly need graduates with digital, analytical, entrepreneurial, and AI-era competencies. So we face a double challenge: expanding access while radically improving relevance.

Personally, I have pushed a model built on affordability — the UCC is known for affordability across all programmes — flexibility, partnerships, and digital delivery. As founder and Group Executive Chairman, I have sought to ensure this remains central to our strategy. I am especially focused on scalable online education through UCC Global, workforce-relevant programmes, micro-credentials (a huge untapped area), stronger international linkages, and the thoughtful use of AI and automation to improve both student experience and institutional effectiveness. We have already begun a number of AI initiatives in partnership with several local and international technology firms — proof of concepts in marketing, recruitment, admissions, student life, and student support — still in embryonic stages, but progressing.

I also continue to push the conversation beyond incremental reform. We are in fact looking at transformational or monumental change — disruptive innovation was the focus of my own doctoral study, and I am passionate about it. Caribbean institutions must move faster toward flexible pathways, stronger student support systems, digital-first delivery, AI literacy, and deeper employer alignment. Unfortunately, many if not most tertiary institutions in the Caribbean are still not entrepreneurial; the mindset is changing, but too slowly.

In summary, the biggest challenge is the gap between how higher education has traditionally been delivered and what the Caribbean now requires. We need broader access, lower friction, much stronger workforce relevance, and much faster digital transformation. My own response has been to build and scale a flexible, affordable, partnership-driven model. That partnership-driven approach is how we have become the fastest-growing university in Jamaica.

---

Innovation Report: Take us back to the early 1990s. How did you identify the gap in accessible higher education, and how did you build the institution? And secondly — do such opportunities still exist today, and who will be able to address them now?

Dr. Winston Adams: In 1992, there was significant migration of Jamaicans to North America and the UK, and the country was losing talent. I saw the need for a model that could build additional talent locally in a more flexible, convenient and affordable way. The gaps we identified then are largely different today but just as urgent.

The first gap — flexible, high-quality tertiary education for working adults, underserved communities, and learners who cannot fit the traditional campus model — existed in 1992 and still exists in many ways today, though we have corrected much of it, moving access from about 4% of the eligible cohort to approximately 29%.

The second gap is affordability, which continues, particularly in fast-moving skills tied to the future economy — AI fluency, digital business, data, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, climate resilience, and innovation management.

The third major gap is between education and employment. Too many students still move through systems that are not tightly integrated with the real economy. Many institutions are still not seeking to establish the necessary partnerships with employers to ensure programme relevance. There has been improvement over the past two to three decades, but the gap remains.

The fourth gap is institutional capacity itself. Many institutions know they must modernise, but they do not have the systems, partnerships, or execution capability to do so. The process in Caribbean academia is slow; the mindset differs from traditional businesses.

Who is positioned to address these gaps? It requires a coalition — agile universities like the UCC, governments, private-sector employers, development partners, technology firms, and diaspora networks. Jamaica has a huge diaspora; we have a population of approximately three million and likely at least three million more in the diaspora. That is a major opportunity. Institutions that are flexible, entrepreneurial, digitally minded, and partnership-oriented are best positioned to lead.

CARICOM's own digital agenda and digital task force show that the region recognises digital capability as strategic, not optional. Regional messaging also stresses that faculty and institutions must be reoriented toward innovation, critical thinking, and digital-age pedagogy. UCC's own online model — self-paced asynchronous access and micro-credential positioning — is one path corresponding to these gaps.

In the 1990s, the gap was access. Today, the gap is access plus agility plus relevance. The next generation of successful universities in the Caribbean will not simply teach more people; they will have to help more people become economically future-ready, especially in the age of AI.

---

Innovation Report: What do universities need to understand to get AI integration right and prepare students for the economy of tomorrow?

Dr. Winston Adams: We have been proactive. UCC is perhaps the first university in the country to establish a dedicated AI task force, consisting of internal and external professionals, to develop a blueprint and policies for the adoption of AI across teaching, learning, and administration.

Several pilot projects and proof-of-concepts are underway with local and international partners. We are still in the embryonic stages, but we are revolutionising our use of AI. The goal is not only greater efficiency and productivity but sustained growth.

Establishing the task force was an initiative of the University executive leadership and myself as Group Executive Chairman. The president, deputy president and their team, for the most part, operationalise and implement it; I drop in on meetings and working sessions periodically to provide support and further guidance. Since late last year, the university has been building the apparatus to ensure we are AI-enabled and AI-driven.

We are also implementing a comprehensive ERP solution for the first time — AI-enabled as well. Currently we have disparate technological solutions: CRM, HR, and other interfaces connected by APIs but not fully integrated. The ERP initiative, combined with AI, will change that. We are bullish about it and continue to seek additional partnerships.

Ultimately, it comes down to our customers — and we call them customers, not just students. They expect the highest quality education, training and services from us, and we want them to graduate with AI literacy, ready for the workforce and ready for their own entrepreneurial ambitions, equipped for the new economy. AI is being infused through the curricula. The process is in its early stages, but we are on the path.

---

Innovation Report: Please expand on what international partnerships mean to the university, and where you see opportunities for commercial and academic partners to engage with UCC in the future.

Dr. Winston Adams: We have built our model around international partnerships, and it has been central to building the UCC into the university it is today. We are still the youngest university in the country, and we have grown rapidly largely because of successful partnerships.

What does this tell us about what Caribbean universities need to do differently to produce graduates ready for a technology-driven economy? It signals that UCC and similar Caribbean universities must become more open, collaborative, and responsive. In the 1990s, that was foreign to most tertiary institutions — closed, not collaborative, not responsive. That was simply the culture. Undoubtedly, we helped to change that.

No university, especially in a small state, can afford to operate as a closed ecosystem. If we want graduates ready for a technology-driven economy, we need stronger international academic partnerships, stronger industry partnerships, more flexible curriculum design, more embedded digital competencies, and more lifelong learning pathways.

We also need to move beyond the old idea that a university's job ends with awarding a degree. Universities must now support continuous reskilling and upskilling throughout a person's working life.

For Caribbean universities specifically, that means doing at least five things differently: embedding digital and AI literacy across all disciplines; expanding micro-credentials and stackable pathways; co-designing programmes with employers; strengthening applied learning and entrepreneurship; and using technology to widen access without sacrificing quality.

Supporting this, CARICOM and Jamaican officials are publicly calling for higher education systems to become flexible, inclusive, digitally aligned, and partnership-based. The region's digital agenda and skills initiatives reinforce that digital transformation is now a core development priority. Recent World Bank Caribbean work also points to underdeveloped digital skills and talent shortages as a major economic bottleneck.

UCC's own ecosystem already reflects some of these shifts — accredited quality assurance, online delivery, international-facing divisions, and AI-oriented programming. A Caribbean university such as UCC can no longer be defined only by its campus footprint, as it historically was. It must now be defined by its talent footprint, its digital footprint, and its partnership footprint. Those are the new imperatives.

---

Innovation Report: What is the next big step in the evolution of the university?

Dr. Winston Adams: I want to speak about our Knowledge City — the University Town/Smart Sustainable City project — EcoVista Smart Sustainable City because we are actively seeking international partnerships and investors for it. This is an award-winning project initiative — the planned design and project development concept won the technology award in Dubai in 2025 — and will represent the first university town and smart sustainable city of its kind in the Caribbean, located in Trelawny, Jamaica, on 280 acres of beachfront property.

There are about 60 university towns and knowledge cities across the globe, with well-established examples including those in the UAE. We drew inspiration from what we saw in Dubai last year, and the project we are establishing in Jamaica reflects many of the same principles. It is not just a university town; it is a smart, sustainable city, fully supported by the Government of Jamaica, including the Prime Minister. This is a national transformative initiative, not simply another UCC project.

The project is a 280-acre mixed-use smart-city development designed to blend higher education with residential, commercial, technology innovation and research, and resort elements, all powered by sustainable infrastructure. Key components include:

The university town itself, a 300,000-square-foot educational hub designed to accommodate more than 5,000 students at any given time.

A residential community of approximately 400 units ranging from student housing to residential homes, including on-campus residences to attract regional and international students and study-abroad programmes.

An eco-business park with 72,000 square feet dedicated to innovation and commerce.

Resort and hospitality elements — we are about 30 minutes from Montego Bay — including beachfront access and roughly 800 rooms across resort and build assets.

Integrated commercial and retail space to support the local community and student population.

We developed the comprehensive business plan in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which produced a detailed master plan with financial projections. The land was appraised at approximately US$53 million in 2024; we are purchasing it for US$31.5 million. We are in the final stages of land acquisition and currently negotiating strategic partnerships, though none have been formally concluded.

We want to attract not just investors but other universities. UCC will be the host and main sponsor, and we expect to attract up to half a dozen other universities from North America and Europe to operate within the university town, each bringing their specialty.

Strategic smart-city features include sustainability — renewable energy systems, modern infrastructure designed for long-term sustainability, and mixed-use development that integrates living, working, and learning environments into a self-sustaining ecosystem.

This project represents the cornerstone of our regional and international growth strategy, moving the UCC beyond traditional education into community development and real estate innovation. It is unique, and we are very bullish about the possibilities. In this regard, we invite additional serious potential international partners to join forces with us in the execution of this exciting and revolutionary project initiative in Jamaica.

Media note: This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. You are free to republish it in full with proper attribution to Innovation Report. Please link back to the original article on africalive.net.