The University of the West Indies (UWI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks to oversee the operations of its Open Campus Country Sites in the British Overseas Territories (BOTs). The sites include Anguilla, The British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands and Bermuda. Dr. Fleming-Banks, who is the first to hold this position, will be based on Anguilla.
The Open Campus is the fourth campus of the UWI and serves more than 20,000 students in sixteen of the English-speaking Caribbean countries across the region. It works in conjunction with the three residential campuses, as well as other tertiary institutions and development agencies throughout the Caribbean to design, develop and deliver quality programmes by distance, to meet the academic and professional development needs of the people of the Caribbean. As the overall leader of the University’s operations in the BOTs, Dr. Fleming-Banks’ key responsibilities will include the harmonisation of the work at the Sites, in an effort to lead the BOTs into a new phase of productivity and enhanced relationships with the governments and communities they serve.
The Anguillian national brings a long and distinguished career in education, management and human resource development and training in the public and private/hospitality sectors on Anguilla and in the region to the new position. She is also quite familiar with the Open Campus of The UWI, having served as an adjunct member of the Distance Education/Open Campus Team for more than two decades. Her Open Campus experience includes teaching, course management/coordination and training.
Over the years, Dr. Fleming-Banks has worked with large cross-sections of educators, in the region and beyond, on various professional development and other initiatives, including, course writing, second examiner duties and Prior Learning Assessment (PLA). She has been involved in numerous Open Campus assessment activities and other professional development training. More recently, she was a part of the team of trainers leading the Open Campus staff through the Revised Grade Point Average (GPA) Assessment training.
Dr. Fleming-Banks is also involved in research related to the influence of training for application in Online and Distant Learning (ODL). She is therefore considered well poised and suitably qualified to take up this new challenge on behalf of the UWI Open Campus.
In addition to her work with The UWI, she has also served as part of the adjunct faculty of the Anguilla Community College, as well as a member of its Hospitality Advisory Committee. Most recently she held the position of Dean of Studies.
For several years, Dr. Fleming-Banks was the Director of Human Resources and Training at one of the Anguilla’s leading hotels for several years. She is also the co-author of the National Reports on the Status of Women for the Governments of Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on the Status of Women. Dr. Fleming-Banks was a regular participant/expert in the Regional Meetings of United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation and was the independent reviewer of the 2011 Anguilla Country Poverty Assessment Report for the Caribbean Development Bank.
From 2000-2003, she served as Chairperson of the Project and Transition Boards charged with the decentralisation of health services and the establishment of the Health Authority of Anguilla (HAA) on behalf of the Government of Anguilla, and was the first Chairperson of the inaugural Board of Directors which led the Health Authority through to its accreditation by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation in 2007.
As Manager of the BOTs, Dr. Fleming-Banks will be working closely with the Director of the Open Campus Country Sites, Dr. Francis Severin. Speaking on behalf of the University, Dr. Severin stated that: “The UWI Open Campus is indeed pleased to formally welcome Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks to our family. I say formally, to suggest substantive employment per se, as she has had a long and fruitful relationship with us on a part-time basis. She is therefore no stranger and given what we know of her passion, strength, resilience, commitment, competence and focus, we are genuinely excited about the trajectory of the UWI Open Campus in the British Overseas Territories.”
Speaking about her appointment, Dr. Fleming-Banks said that she was delighted to continue working with the UWI Open Campus in this capacity and was particularly excited about collaborating with the local Open Campus Teams, government, education and other stakeholders in the BOTs.
The UWI Open Campus welcomes Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks and looks forward to a long and productive working relationship.
– Press Release
