The Barbados Community College Experience

The Barbados Community College Experience establishes the genesis of the college and the ongoing impact of globalization and educational borrowing. It examines the North American community college’s influence on the Caribbean pool, the global community college movement and its emerging global counterparts. By deriving five models of development in the region, Vivienne Roberts opens a new window to the community college experience in the anglophone Caribbean by bringing to the fore the reality of more than twenty relevant institutions.

Barbados has been the community college pioneer in the anglophone Caribbean and a fairly early entrant to the worldwide community college movement. Roberts sets the Barbados experience in its local, regional and global contexts by exploring the phases of establishment, consolidation, expansion and reputation building, and uncertainty and reinvention. The colleges’ widening scope of operations from transfer to vocational, community engagement, remediation, baccalaureate, and adult and continuing education roles is discussed.

The book also interrogates the extent to which the Barbados Community College has shown leadership within the Caribbean and demonstrated the values of accessibility, affordability, flexibility, community engagement and innovation while impacting student success, stakeholder satisfaction and fulfilment of its mission.