UWI Five Islands Campus reports EC$3.7m surplus despite one-time digital investment

Principal of the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus revealed that the university closed its last academic year with a surplus of EC$3.7 million and an operating margin of 13.2%.

Speaking at the annual Campus Meeting, Professor Justin Robinson revealed that while the overall figures remained strong and fiscal discipline robust, two financial metrics moved in the wrong direction which were the total expenses-to-income ratio rose and the operating margin.

He said that both were driven by a single one-time expenditure into the EC$4.2 million investment in the Ellucian Banner Enterprise Resource Planning System.

“What you are seeing in the numbers is a campus that made a strategic, one-time investment in digital autonomy,” Robinson said. “Autonomy from manual processes. Autonomy from patchwork systems.”

Of the EC$4.2 million, EC$4 million covered subscription, software and licensing costs which due to the system being subscription-based, the campus was required to expense the full amount within a single financial year rather than spread it across multiple years.

Adjusted for that investment, Robinson said, the surplus stood at EC$7.9 million with an operating margin consistent with the prior year.

The plan to integrate the system on the Five Islands campus began in late October 2024, with implementation teams fully mobilised by March 2025, and the system went live in July 2025, covering student registration, finance, accounts receivable, data migration and reporting and analytics.

Robinson described the transition as the single largest investment of his career, saying it was already paying dividends in efficiency, agility and return on investment.

Campus Registrar Dr Camille Samuel said the platform gave her one-click visibility into student progress and retention, allowing her team to identify students who had not returned and intervene early.

Robinson noted that as the only UWI campus born in the digital era, Five Islands is committed to becoming the most digitally advanced in the system, with the Banner platform central to that strategy.