PM Addresses Spartan University Extension Ceremony
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PM Addresses Spartan University Extension Ceremony |
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Contact: Earl Bousquet
Prime Minister Dr Kenny D Anthony this morning addressed the inaugural ceremony of the new annex of the Vieux-Fort-based Spartan Health Science University and hailed the 18-year-old institution’s several silent achievements. The offshore American medical school, which has been operating here since 1980, on Wednesday hosted a ceremony to open the new extension. In his address, the Prime Minister noted that while there were concerns expressed at the beginning about the venture and while there still exists a notion that a university must be a sprawling complex, the reality was that in its 18 years Spartan University has not altered its fee structure. Dr Anthony said much of the suspicion that accompanied the Spartan’s arrival here has now disappeared and in its place the university has scaled heights that few other offshore medical institutions have earned. He noted, for example, that among its achievements Spartan can boast a Nobel Prize Winner in the person of Dr Sean Tedjarati, an alumni who won a Nobel Prize in 1999 as part of a team of Doctors Without Borders who provided care to persons in need around the world. Dr Anthony also lauded two other achievements by the Vieux Fort-based University. The first was that one of its graduates had gone on to establish one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the US State of Florida. The second -- which was closer to home -- was that a St. Lucian, Ayisha Thomas-St. Cyr, had scored the highest marks ever in what some students consider to be a very intimidating USMLE Step One exam. The Prime Minister noted, however, that notwithstanding the seeming success of Spartan, he needed “to ensure that all medical education delivered in St. Lucia is sufficiently indiginized and delivered in accordance with the highest international standards.” Dr Anthony said Spartan university had helped change and transform the southern part of the island and while he could not quantify a figure, he knew of the economic impact of the large number of students by way of their contributions to rent, purchases, hotel accommodation, employment of construction workers, infrastructure and sporting development and government revenues. The Prime Minister called on Spartan University to do even more to help its island base by not only preparing to assist in the delivery of universal health care for St. Lucians in the not too distant future, but by also using its international contacts to help procure less costly medicines. In conclusion, Dr Anthony called on the students to see themselves, not only as offshore medical students but as an integral part of the St. Lucian architecture. He said the government of St. Lucia “will continue to endeavour to provide an environment which is conducive to the pursuit of a sound medical education and allow them the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful freedoms of this land.”
June 2, 2004 |
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