HOUSTON, TEXAS — The University of Guyana’s enrollment has grown from about 4,000 students in 2015 to more than 16,000 this year, a surge outgoing Vice Chancellor Professor Paloma Mohamed linked to free tertiary education and new training demand tied to the country’s growing energy sector.
Mohamed spoke last week during a panel discussion at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston focused on Guyana’s development since the country’s first major offshore oil discovery.
“In 2015 the university had about 4,000. Right now we’re at 16,000,” Mohamed.
She explained that enrollment accelerated after the Guyana government introduced free tuition at the state university for Guyanese students, explaining “In one year, we went from 11,000 — that’s last year when it was done — to 16,300 this year.”
Mohamed said the university also expanded its academic offerings as demand grew for skills linked to Guyana’s oil and gas industry.
University of Guyana boosts faculty with 31 doctoral scholars from Exxon-funded program | OilNOW
The university introduced new programs in petroleum engineering, supply chain management and oil and gas taxation, among other areas.
“We’ve introduced about 50 programs from [Health, Safety, Security and Environment] HSSE all the way up at different levels,” Mohamed noted.
She said the university recognized early that Guyana’s transformation would require broader energy-focused education beyond petroleum alone.
“One of the things that became very clear to me was that we needed to respond not to petroleum only, but to energy,” Mohamed stated.
University of Guyana to establish Caribbean’s first world-class subsea training centre | OilNOW
The university has also expanded engineering and medical training beyond Georgetown.
“We’ve just started delivering in all 10 of the Guyanese regions,” she said.
Guyana became an oil-producing nation in December 2019 after ExxonMobil and its Stabroek Block co-venturers Hess and CNOOC brought the Liza 1 development online. Four floating production, storage and offloading vessels are now producing offshore Guyana, with additional projects approved for development.
