The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is a public university established in 1963 by the Guyanese government.
Cheddi Jagan, then Premier of British Guiana, considered that the University of the West Indies, to which his government had contributed since 1948, was not meeting the demand of his countrymen for higher education. On 4 January 1962, Jagan wrote to Harold Drayton, then in Ghana, to ask him to seek the advice of W.E.B. Du Bois on starting a new university.
Drayton returned to British Guiana in December 1962, and it was on his advice that Jagan wrote to socialist scholars in the United Kingdom and United States, including Joan Robinson at the University of Cambridge, Paul Baran at Stanford University, and Lancelot Hogben at Birmingham to involve them in the recruitment of staff.
The University opened on the grounds of Queen's College in late 1963. Its first chancellor was Edgar Mortimer Duke and its first Principal and Vice-Chancellor was the British biologist and mathematician Lancelot Hogben.
Organisation and structure
The university is divided into a number of faculties:
School of Earth and Environmental SciencesDirector - Shanomae RoseCoordinator - Linda Johnson-Bhola
Faculty of Natural SciencesDean - Calvin BernardAssistant Dean - Kesha Holder
Faculty of Social SciencesDean - Paloma MohommedAssistant Dean - Sharon Roopchand Edwards
School of Education and HumanitiesDean - Claudette AustinDeputy Dean - Bonita Hunter
Faculty of Health SciencesDean - Emanuel CummingsAssistant Dean - Davon Van-VeenDirector - Madan Rambaran
Faculty of TechnologyDean - Verlyn KlassAssistant Dean - Elena Trim
Institute of Distance and Continuing EducationFaculty of Agriculture and ForestryIt also contains the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education.
Mahadai Das, Guyanese writerM. Jamal Deen, FRSC FCAE FINAE, Professor and Senior Canada Research Chair, McMaster University, CanadaOdeen Ishmael, Guyanese ambassador Venezuela, formerly to the United States and the Organization of American StatesDenis Williams, Guyanese painter and archaeologistNeil Pierre, Director of Policy Coordination Branch, United NationsFaculty and administrators
Prem Misir, Pro-Chancellor and Professor in Public HealthJoyce Sparer Adler, American critic, playwright, and teacher, as well as a founding faculty of the University in 1963Joel Benjamin, former deputy Librarian and archivist at the UniversityDerek Bickerton, former lecturer, now Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at University of Hawai'i, HonoluluJanette Bulkan, Guyanese professor and activist of international environmental human rights; visiting professor at Colby CollegeHarold Drayton, key advisor to Jagan on the founding of the university, Guyanese scientist, former Deputy-Principal and Professor of BiologyMichael Gilkes, Guyanese writer and academicStanley Greaves, Guyanese painter, former head of Creative Arts at the UniversityRichard Hart, Jamaican lawyer and politicianLancelot Hogben, English zoologist and geneticistAbdur Rahman Slade Hopkinson, Guyanese writer and professor at the University (1966–68)Basdeo Mangru, Guyanese historian; current faculty of City University of New York, YorkAli Mazrui, African and Islamic studies academicDr Mark Pelling, Reader in Human Geography, King's College, LondonMarie Philipneri, M.D., M.P.H. Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of Outpatient Dialysis Program, Saint Louis University School of MedicineClem Seecharan, Guyanese writerBertrand Ramcharan, current Channcellor of the UniversityShridath Ramphal, former Guyanese foreign minister (1972–75) and the second Commonwealth Secreteary General (1975–90)Walter Rodney, Pan-African writer and political theoristRupert Roopnaraine, Guyanese writer, politician and academicDr Joycelyn Loncke, Guyanese Linguist, teacher of French Language.
