[www.inewsguyana.com] – Chairperson of the Council of Legal Education Jacqueline Samuel-Brown, Q.C. maintains that until the Hugh Wooding Law School knows how many graduates of the University of the West Indies (UWI) will exercise their right to seek admission to the institution, it cannot be determined how many additional students (from the University of Guyana) can be accommodated.
She was at the time responding to Prime Minister and Chairman of the Conference of the Heads of Government of CARICOM, Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves, who had requested that the Council accommodate the automatic admission of the top 25 Guyanese Graduates for the academic year 2014-2015.
Samuels – Brown insists however that students from UWI have priority over other applicants and the admittance of UG students cannot be automatic.
“This is one of the matters which may have to be revisited, particularly as the quota system on which it was premised has been effectively abandoned. It is however likely that for this year some University of Guyana graduates can be accommodated at the Eugene Dupuch Law School. We would of course have to know as soon as possible how many University of Guyana graduates would be interested in attending that law school,” she reasoned.
Samuels – Brown recommended that if the capacity constraints of the Hugh Wooding Law School and the Norman Manley Law School are to be addressed in a meaningful way, the law schools must receive capital injections to fund the expansion of the physical plants and the full-time staff complement, as a matter of urgency.
She has requested meeting with a delegation from the Council. In this regard President Donald Ramotar has already made contact with Dr. Gonsalves and requested an early meeting between the delegation from the Council of Legal Education and the Prime Minister.
Attorney General Anil Nandall has advised that arrangements are currently being made for that meeting to take place at the earliest possible day in June 2014. He said the Government remains committed to pursue, most resolutely, every possible avenue and resort to every option available, in order to protect the welfare of Guyanese students and the future of the law programme at the University of Guyana.
