Come Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 6:00 PM Eastern Caribbean Time, the University of the West Indies (The UWI) Global Campus will host its highly anticipated 2026 graduation ceremony via free public access streams on UWItv.global, Flow EVO linear channels, and Flow’s Bluu mobile application. Centered on the empowering theme “Built to ADAPT. Ready to LEAD,” the fully virtual event will celebrate a landmark cohort of 1,293 graduands spanning every level of tertiary qualification, from professional certificates and diplomas up to doctoral degrees, across dozens of academic disciplines. The 2026 cohort marks a historic first for the institution: it includes the very first graduating class of students from the Pre-University Polytechnic, who completed their Associate degrees in Business Management, Paralegal Studies, and Social Work under a 2024 franchise partnership between The UWI Global Campus and the polytechnic. Thousands of graduands spread across every Caribbean nation will join the broadcast remotely, many gathering with loved ones at in-person watch parties to cheer as their names are announced and their portraits appear on the official ceremony stream. The virtual audience will include a distinguished roster of regional leaders: Caribbean Heads of State and Government, The UWI Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor, members of the university’s executive management team, senior national government officials, the Global Campus senior leadership group, and countless family members and friends of the graduating class, all gathering to recognise the years of dedication, resilience, and hard work that earned the new graduates their formal academic credentials. This year’s ceremony will also award honorary doctorates to two trailblazing Caribbean citizens whose decades of public service have shaped regional progress. Melvin L. Claxton, an award-winning journalist from Antigua and Barbuda, will receive a Doctor of Letters (DLitt) in recognition of his transformative 25-year career in investigative reporting: his rigorous, fearless work has exposed institutional corruption, rewritten outdated regional laws, held unaccountable public figures to task, and directly saved lives across the Caribbean. Notably, Claxton remains the only Black journalist in the 110-year history of the Pulitzer Prizes to be named explicitly in the organisation’s gold medal citation. The second honorary degree recipient is René Baptiste, CMG, of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who will be conferred a Doctor of Laws (LLD) for her 50 years of unparalleled contributions to governance, legal practice, and regional cultural advancement. Over her half-century career, Baptiste has built a legacy that extends far beyond the courtroom: she has served in her nation’s Parliament and Cabinet, held leadership roles in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Assembly, led her national Bar Association, served on global governing bodies for the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, championed the regional credit union and cooperative movement, held active leadership positions in the Anglican Church, and been a steadfast patron of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ literary and cultural arts scene. The 2026 class valedictorian is Walson Josiah Pacquette, a Dominica-based physical education instructor, sports coach, administrator, and technical official who earned a First Class Honours Bachelor of Science in Sport and Leadership Management. Pacquette, who hails from Grand Bay, has spent his career bridging the fields of education and community sports, bringing the same rigorous discipline and pursuit of excellence to every role he undertakes. As the 2026 graduates step forward to launch their next personal and professional chapters, the UWI Global Campus is highlighting how their achievements embody the institution’s core 75-year mission: to deliver accessible, high-quality higher education that empowers Caribbean people to drive tangible, positive change in their local communities and the wider region. The ceremony will conclude with all new graduates reciting the official UWI Alumni Pledge, followed by a collective musical performance of the beloved university anthem, “There is a Light.” For context, The UWI was founded in 1948 as a small Jamaica-based University College of London with just 33 medical students, and has since grown into an internationally ranked global institution serving nearly 50,000 students across five campuses (Mona, St. Augustine, Cave Hill, Five Islands, and the Global Campus) plus international partner centres across North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Offering more than 1,000 distinct certificate, diploma, and degree programmes spanning 10 core academic fields from medical sciences to sport leadership, it is the largest hub of specialised intellectual expertise in the Caribbean. Since 2018, it has earned consistent placement across four separate Times Higher Education (THE) global ranking lists: the flagship World University Rankings, the Golden Age University Rankings for institutions founded 50 to 80 years ago, the Latin America and Caribbean University Rankings, and the THE Impact Rankings measuring progress against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is the only English-speaking Caribbean university to earn a spot on all four THE ranking rosters, a milestone that supported the recent launch of its new International School for Development Justice, a global online graduate business school designed to train the next generation of sustainable development leaders worldwide.
Antigua and Barbuda journalist Melvin Claxton to receive honorary doctorate at UWI Global Campus graduation on November 14
