Bahamas News
University of The Bahamas Eyes Strategic Priorities in New Norm
#Nassau, THE BAHAMAS – November 18, 2020 – The 2019-2020 academic year brought daunting challenges for University of The Bahamas (UB’s), but still senior administrators have touted some successes and set key priorities for the 2020-2021 academic year.
The Fall 2020 semester has been marked by an increase in full-time enrolment and Family Island enrolment, an expansion of land assets, while new graduate programmes will be rolled out and the University community in Grand Bahama remains focused on rebuilding, senior administrators reported during the Media P.A.S.S. (Plan for Achieving Strategic Success) virtual event held recently.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. K. Jonathan Rodgers noted that while UB has experienced a very tough period, it has shown that it is tough enough to handle any other challenges that may lie ahead. Dr. Rodgers said The Bahamas—particularly the northern islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco—had barely started to pick up the pieces from Hurricane Dorian when the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent economic recession struck.
Like many other organizations, exploring and capitalizing on potential revenue generating measures is among the priorities.
“We are contemplating a possible convocation center to be built on the Clarence Bain Building property,” said Dr. Rodgers. “We are also in talks with the government to create an economic zone around the university campus that will provide an income stream needed to support the future growth of the university.”
The Clarence A. Bain Building has been razed and the government recently gifted the land, on University Drive and Moss Road, to UB.
Among the senior administrators who reported on their respective portfolios were President Dr. Rodney D. Smith; Vice President of Administrative Services Dr. Marcella Elliott-Ferguson; Vice President of University of The Bahamas-North Dr. Ian G. Strachan; Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Maria Oriakhi; and Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Alumni Affairs Mr. Dino Hernandez. Each enumerated the progress made over the 2019-2020 academic year and identified their strategic imperatives for the 2020-2021 year.
President Smith attributed the achievement of recent milestones to a culture of collaboration and shared governance. He celebrated the contributions of faculty, staff, students and administrators as well as donors and other supporters of the University.
“During this pandemic, both academic freedom and shared governance have been essential in UB’s ability to pivot and remain a functioning tertiary level institution. Essential to all of our success is the faculty and staff at UB who took on so many other duties and responsibilities,” said President Smith. “I thank them for being innovative in the use of technology, and working so enthusiastically with students, making sure that the high quality education for which UB is renowned, is delivered timely and accurately.”
A five-year Strategic Plan is guiding UB’s trajectory and among the goals are increasing student enrolment and graduation. Factors like the lingering effect of Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted student enrolment.
Full-time enrolment has increased by 11.5 percent to 3,790 students; enrolment of Family Island students has increased; and the percentage of students pursuing undergraduate degree programmes rose by 2.8 percent for Fall 2020, according to VP of Administrative Services Dr. Marcella Elliott-Ferguson. UB’s current enrolment stands at 4,575 for New Providence and Grand Bahama.
“Normally we would report separately on the UB-North campus and the main campus here in New Providence,” said Dr. Elliott-Ferguson. “This time around though, that did not appear to be an adequate measure, because what we found is that due to the virtual environment there were students who were registering both for courses at UB-North and courses in New Providence, no matter where they were.”
VP of UB-North Dr. Ian Strachan also touted an increase in enrolment for Fall 2020 as a result of students being able to register and take classes online offered at either campus.
“This year we have a higher enrolment than we have had in a very long time, 686 students enrolled in UB-North classes and the students are not all resident in Grand Bahama. Even in the midst of this crisis our ability to respond creatively and quickly, to migrate our classes online has made it possible for us to grow,” said Dr. Strachan.
Eight months into kicking its remote education into high gear, some 90% of UB’s courses are being delivered as virtual content. A few practicum classes are being held on campus with strict health protocols, according to VP of Academic Affairs Dr. Maria Oriakhi. By the end of the current academic year, the institution expects to roll out new graduate degree programmes including the very first doctoral degree.
“Five graduate programmes were approved by the Academic Senate: MBA Accounting, MBA Events Management, MBA Hospitality Management, Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma in Public Administration, expected to begin Spring 2021. We also anticipate offering the Master and Doctorate by Research before the end of this academic year,” noted Dr. Oriakhi.
In line with the strategic goal of increasing and diversifying revenue and funding sources, VP Institutional Advancement and Alumni Affairs Dino Hernandez revealed the highlights of private giving to UB from both national and international donors. He noted that there was a 148 percent increase in cumulative gift activity for 2019-2020 over 2018-2019. Additionally, between 4th September, 2019 and 30th September, 2020 UB’s Hurricane Dorian Relief and Recovery Fund secured $461,461.44 in cash, pledges, and in-kind donations for the rebuilding of UB-North. UB also has been fundraising for its COVID-19 Relief Fund.
“We never stop accepting gifts. There is still a great level of need. In this global pandemic we realized that our students are in desperate need of technology, not just limited to access to a laptop, or a desktop but also access to the Internet. So I encourage folks to go to our COVID-19 Relief Fund and give,” he said.
Held under the theme “Accessing, Adapting and Advancing Higher Education in a New Norm”, the Media P.A.S.S. event is a platform to share UB’s achievements, and milestones for the 2019-2020 academic year and strategic priorities and projections for the current year.
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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