centres: UWI Mona (Jamaica), UWI Cave Hill (Barbados), UWI St. Augustine (Trinidad and Tobago), UWI Five Islands (Antigua and Barbuda), and the regional UWI Global Campus in the UWI-funding Caribbean nations. The UWI campus in Mona, Jamaica, serves as the headquarters of the University of the West Indies.
The aim of the university is to help "unlock the potential for economic and cultural growth" in the West Indies, thus allowing improved regional autonomy. The university was originally instituted as an independent external college of the University of London.
== History ==
The university was founded in 1948, on the recommendation of the Asquith Commission through its sub-committee on the West Indies, chaired by Sir James Irvine. The Asquith Commission had been established in 1943 to review the provision of higher education in the British colonies. Initially in a special relationship with the University of London, the then University College of the West Indies (UCWI) was seated at Mona, about five miles from …