On October 10, 2026, a landmark moment unfolded in Caribbean higher education and public health development, as eight experienced health professionals crossed the graduation stage at The University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus in Antigua and Barbuda to become the inaugural graduating class of the campus’s Master of Public Health (MPH) programme. The ceremony marked the campus’s second annual graduate graduation event, honoring students across disciplines including the School of Health & Behavioural Sciences, the home of the new MPH degree.
Of the eight trailblazing graduates, seven are practicing registered nurse-midwives and one is a medical doctor, all of whom completed the rigorous two-year academic programme that launched alongside the 2024/2025 academic year. When the programme first opened for enrollment, 15 students joined the initial cohort, with the eight graduates successfully fulfilling all degree requirements including a capstone research project. Seven of the graduates received full financial support through government scholarships from Antigua and Barbuda, with additional backing from the nation’s Ministry of Health, Wellness, the Environment and Civil Service Affairs. The graduating cohort includes Tanasha Roberts, Chelle Thomas-Humphrey, Miasha John-Carr, Roselia Carriere-Joseph, Elaine Davis, Joyann Richardson-Fiedtkou, Nollareen Andrew-Richards, and Dr. Jonathan McComie.
In his address to the graduating class, guests, and university community, Professor C. Justin Robinson, Pro Vice-chancellor and campus principal at UWI Five Islands, emphasized the critical role the programme plays for the Caribbean subregion. “We congratulate the inaugural cohort of MPH Graduates,” Robinson said. “As we confront the Triple C Crisis in our region, equipping our health professionals with the knowledge and practice to help build and strengthen the infrastructure in our twin island state and across the subregion is critical.” He went on to explain that the MPH programme is a core component of a broader regional strategy to boost workforce and institutional capacity in high-priority sectors across the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), with public health topping the list of needs.
Sir Molwyn Joseph, Antigua and Barbuda’s former health minister who attended the celebratory ceremony, noted that the creation of the MPH programme at UWI Five Islands grew directly from intentional policy planning during his tenure to expand local healthcare training capacity. “The Ministry’s support for the programme, and the discussions that led to its addition to the offerings at The UWI Five Islands Campus during my tenure, were part of capacity building in the health sector,” Joseph explained.
For the graduates themselves, the two-year journey was marked by unique personal and professional challenges that tested their resilience. All eight students began their postgraduate studies in September 2024 while holding active full-time roles in patient care across Antigua and Barbuda’s communities, balancing clinical shifts and long working hours with academic coursework and research requirements. Many of the graduates also balance caregiving responsibilities for their own children, fitting study sessions into late nights, early mornings, and weekends when they were not on duty at clinics or hospitals. The cohort shared that periods of illness, professional exhaustion, and self-doubt created obstacles along the way, but collective peer support carried the group through tight deadlines, demanding semesters, and the rigorous capstone research process.
The graduation of this first MPH cohort aligns with the School of Health and Behavioural Sciences’ ongoing expansion of postgraduate training opportunities tailored to the unique needs of the Caribbean. In addition to the new Master of Public Health, the school already offers a Master of Science in Non-Communicable Disease Management, a programme designed to address the high burden of non-communicable illnesses across the region that places major strain on local healthcare systems.
Established in 2019 as the fifth official campus of The University of the West Indies, UWI Five Islands has quickly become a major hub for accessible, world-class higher education across the Eastern Caribbean. As part of the UWI system, which holds consistent top rankings in global university assessments from Times Higher Education (THE), the campus upholds the system’s long legacy of academic excellence while prioritizing programmes that directly address regional development priorities. The campus currently offers more than 45 undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes across four specialized schools: the School of Humanities and Education, School of Business and Management, School of Health and Behavioural Sciences, and School of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence. It also hosts the Centre of Excellence for Oceanography and the Blue Economy (COBE), a leading research hub focused on marine science and sustainable ocean economic development, a critical sector for small island developing states across the Caribbean.