UVI requires a minimum of 120 credits to complete a baccalaureate degree,
and 62 credits for completion of an associate degree. To ensure a strong
liberal arts background, all students must complete general education requirements.
All degree
candidates are also required to pass an English proficiency examination
and a computer literacy test. In addition, students accepted for enrollment
at the University of the Virgin Islands take placement tests in English,
reading and mathematics. The University operates on a two-semester system,
with a six-week summer session.
The university maintains high academic standards through a faculty
dedicated to excellence in higher education -- and committed to the University
itself. The teaching faculty is comprised of 111 highly qualified full-time
members, about 60 of whom hold doctoral degrees in their disciplines. Faculty
members represent diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and come from
the United States, the Caribbean, and several countries around the world.
UVI's current enrollment of 1,299 full-time and 1,564 part-time students
comes from the Virgin Islands, twenty-one states, and fifteen other countries,
mainly in the Eastern Caribbean. As a small institution, the university
is able to maintain small classes and ensure close contact among students,
professors, and faculty advisors. (student, faculty testimonials)
UVI also offers many opportunities to conduct research, both at the
student and faculty level. At the Agriculture Experiment Station (AES)
on the St. Croix campus, scientists are studying ways to increase water
efficiency in regions where water may not always be readily available.
The Virgin Islands Environmental Research Station (VIERS) on St. John,
and the Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) and MacLean Marine Science
Center on St. Thomas also offer diverse research opportunities for both
students and faculty.
The University of the Virgin Islands -- by reason of its founding mission
-- is dedicated to the betterment of the community it serves, both regional
and global. Toward this objective, UVI administers community-targeted programs
and services. These include REAP, Upward Bound and the UVI Mentor Program;
as well as the Small Business Development Center (SBDC); Cooperative Extension
Service (CES), which administers the "Women at the Crossroads" program;
and Research Publications Center, which produces "The Caribbean Writer,"
a collective of the best in regional literature. |
Together, the Ralph M. Paiewonsky Library on the St.
Thomas campus and the St. Croix campus library house more than 111,000
volumes, 86,800 titles, 771,000 microforms, and 1,400 periodical titles.
They also contain thousands of other items including maps, pictures, catalogs,
theses, dissertations, pamphlets, and audio-visual materials, and serve
as publication depositories for the U.S. Government and Virgin Islands
Government.
The Paiewonsky Library catalog was fully automated
in 1992 and is a member of the Southeastern Library Network/On-Line Computer
Library Center, an on-line bibliographic
system that links UVI with libraries on the U.S. mainland.
Its special collections -- including the Melchior Center for Recent History,
Charles William Taussig Memorial Collection and Casper Holstein Collection
-- contain materials pertaining to the
civilization, culture, history and literature of Africa
and Africans in the diaspora. Both libraries can provide materials from
the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a microfiche collection
of papers on education and other topics. |
