NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Union if Tertiary Educators of The Bahamas (UTEB) president Daniel Thompson said faculty had agreed to expand the size of online classes being offered at the University of The Bahamas (UB).
Thompson told Eyewitness News that faculty members have also agreed to forego additional compensation in an effort to ensure the institution remains “financially viable”.
“As a part of the effort to ensure the financial viability of the university, the faculty members through UTEB have agreed to an adjustment to their compensation packages,” he said.
“Over this past summer, we agreed to increase our classes from 15 students as required by our industrial agreement for online classes to 25. There is the option that should the faculty decide they can add an additional five students thereby increasing it to 30. That provides substantial savings to the university. Instead of them having to pay for two online classes they would only have to pay for one in some instances.”
Thompson said: “Starting this week, for this semester we agreed to a similar increase. Ordinarily under this condition it would have been 15 students with the option for an increase. Our agreement requires that we are paid an extra $500 for every class we teach online to pay for the work to prepare the online course.
“We agreed to forgo that benefit not just the summer but also for the Fall. That has brought significant savings to the university. Even though it is a difficult time, our members have done their part in terms of promoting our national academy.”
The University of The Bahamas announced late last month that it would continue remote operations with the exception of a small number of courses for the upcoming academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
All lecture, seminar, tutorial, some laboratories and practicum courses will take place virtually for the upcoming fall and spring semesters.
