UWI salutes 37 lecturers in Kingston as Miller Simpson wins Distinguished Teaching Award 2023–2025

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The University of the West Indies (UWI) last Thursday paid tribute to 37 academics at a function the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) put on together with the Office of the Deputy Principal.

Ethnie Miller Simpson was named winner of the UWI Distinguished Teaching Award 2023–2025 for standout work in the classroom. She accepted in a modest spirit and said the main address from Dr Rohan Jowallah, Senior Instructional Designer at the University of Central Florida, had stirred her thinking.

Miller Simpson said the idea of "the productive struggle of learning" especially spoke to her, calling it a faithful picture of how students labour toward graduation while faculty keep sharpening delivery and subject matter so instruction stays current and compelling.

In her view, teachers need to keep retooling so that what is taught can be applied to concrete problems on the ground, and so they can read shifts ahead in Jamaica, the wider Caribbean and internationally.

She highlighted mounting attention to "Assessment, Equity and AI: Governance in Caribbean Education", and said weaving artificial intelligence into teaching in a serious way would rank among the crucial tests for schooling from 2026 onward.

Miller Simpson argued that study should not boil down to "an easy cut-and-paste experience" for pupils or instructors. She said faculty now face heavier demands to nurture inventive thinking and hands-on insight that carry past test scores into jobs and community life.

She also asked whether the Caribbean ought to advance locally built and owned artificial intelligence systems to steer the region's path forward.

Tributes such as the one for Miller Simpson land as UWI still ranks within the leading 3.6 per cent of universities worldwide.