Northern Caribbean University

Northern Caribbean University
Established	1907
Type	Private
President	Dr. Herbert J. Thompson, CD
Academic staff	453 [1]
Students	5,300
Location	Mandeville, Kingston, Montego Bay, Runaway Bay
Website	www.ncu.edu.jm

Northern Caribbean University

The Northern Caribbean University (NCU) is a tertiary level academic facility in Mandeville, Manchester, west-central Jamaica run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Founded in 1907 as the West Indian Training School, in Bog Walk, St Catherine, it is the oldest private tertiary institution in Jamaica.

History

Northern Caribbean University is the oldest private tertiary institution in Jamaica.^{[citation needed]} Founded in 1907 it was first known as West Indian Training School. Following a temporary closure in 1913 it moved from Bog Walk to Mandeville resuming operations in 1919 and offering courses up to the twelfth grade. In 1936 it was renamed West Indian Training College. As its offerings developed to include theology, teacher education, secretarial science, business, and natural sciences, it became a junior college. It achieved senior college status in the late 1950's when it began to offer the Bachelor's Degree in Theology and was renamed West Indies College in 1959. Since then, baccalaureate programmes in some twenty other disciplines have been added. In 1999 the college was granted university status by the Jamaican Government, and was renamed Northern Caribbean University. Currently the university offers graduate and post-graduate programs in the sciences, religion, business and education.

Programme

The institution offers courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels in six colleges and schools.^{[citation needed]} These are the Arts and General Studies, Natural and Applied Sciences, Graduate Education and Leadership, Business and Hospitality Management, Teacher Education and Behavioural Science and Religion and Theology.^{[citation needed]}

Hyacinth Chen Nursing School

There are plans to expand the nursing program, thanks to a donation by Jamaican billionaire Michael Lee-Chin.^[2] The new Nurses School will be called the Hyacinth Chen Nursing School, a separate school away from Northern Caribbean University but still owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.^{[citation needed]}

Affiliations

NCU is a member of the Joint Committee for Tertiary Education (JCTE), and the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions (ACTI).^{[citation needed]}

Awards

The university gained global exposure in the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition of 2007 where members of the school's Computer and Information Science department competing as Team CADI took 3rd place.^{[citation needed]}

Research

The university hosts a local research centre of the Ellen G. White Estate.^{[citation needed]}

Historic buildings

Several buildings on the NCU site have been declared as National Historic Sites by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, including Rose Cottage and the school's chapel.^[3][4]

See also

• List of Seventh-day Adventist hospitals
• List of Seventh-day Adventist medical schools
• List of Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools
• List of Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities

References

1. ^ About NCU.
2. ^ Jamaican billionaire donates additional J$105 million to NCU
3. ^ "Jamaica National Heritage Trust - List of Declared Sites & Monuments". JNHT. 2005. http://www.jnht.com/monuments.php. Retrieved 2009-09-03. 
4. ^ "Jamaica National Heritage Trust - Northern Caribbean University". JNHT. 2005. http://www.jnht.com/heritage_site.php?id=285. Retrieved 2009-09-04. 

External links

• Northern Caribbean University official website
• Aerial view

Coordinates: 18°00′54″N 77°29′54″W / 18.0149366°N 77.4982023°W / 18.0149366; -77.4982023