NCU plans for Mandeville

News July 4, 2017

MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The new president of Northern Caribbean University (NCU) Dr Lincoln Edwards has pledged to continue the efforts of his predecessor, Dr Trevor Gardner, to have Mandeville properly established as a “university town”.

The idea gained momentum a few years ago, following the downturn of the bauxite/alumina sector after decades of being the main economic driver in Manchester and the wider south-central Jamaica.

The recent resumption of refining operations at Alpart in neighbouring St Elizabeth has rekindled hope of a revival in the bauxite/alumina industry, but community and business leaders in Mandeville are insisting that efforts to diversify the local economy should continue.

Gardner, immediate past president of the Seventh-day Adventist-run NCU, was one of the proponents of the idea to have Mandeville as a university town, and, according to Edwards, his predecessor’s involvement in that effort will continue.

“Dr Gardner is assisting us with fund-raising ideas and ensuring that Mandeville becomes a university town, an idea that started with his administration,” Edwards told the audience at his recent installation ceremony at NCU.

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