About The UWI Mona
You did not just start university.You joined something.
See what you just became part ofBefore classes really get going, there are a few things you should know.
Official school song
Play the UWI school song
Every Pelican should know this one.
The Pelican anthem
Play the Pelican anthem
The one you will hear all Orientation.
You will see this on your degree, on your transcript, and on every gate you walk through for the next few years. It was granted by the College of Arms in London on 18 July 1949, and every piece of it means something.
Tap a part to light it up
Eleven parts
Nothing on it is decoration. Start at the bird and work down to the scroll, and by the end you will know what you are wearing on your gown.
The motto
Oriens Ex Occidente Lux
A light rising from the West
The West here is this one. The Caribbean. The idea was that the light would come from the place everybody else had been talking over.
Granted to The University College of the West Indies by the College of Arms, London, on 18 July 1949. Descriptions on this page follow The UWI Visual Identity Guidelines, pages 12 and 13.
Mona by the numbers
The University College of the West Indies opened at Mona in 1948, teaching degrees of the University of London to a first cohort drawn from across the English speaking Caribbean. It became a university in its own right in 1962, and has awarded its own degrees ever since.
What started on one campus is now a regional university, with contributing countries and territories spread across the Caribbean and campuses beyond Jamaica. Mona is where it began, and it is where you are now.
Halls
Your hall can become your family, your team and occasionally your loudest argument.
Hall life at Mona: Sport, Culture, Rivalry, Community, Pride.
Fact 01
Archival photograph, supplied by the Office of Student Services and Development. Photographer and date to be confirmed.
In the mid 1950s, students from the Southern Caribbean brought Mas and steelpan traditions with them to Mona. Those traditions became part of UWI Carnival and helped build Jamaica's appetite for Carnival culture.
Mas and steelpan, carried north by students, and never sent back.
Fact 02
Current or former Caribbean Heads of Government identified in UWI's published alumni record
There is a reason Mona has a Prime Ministers' Park.
The park at Mona honours UWI graduates who went on to lead governments across the Caribbean.
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Swipe the map →
The UWI’s contributing countries and territories: Belize, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Dominica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago.
Touch a lit territory to see which of its leaders came through The UWI. 9 of them are marked.
17 named so far. Positions on the map are stylised, not surveyed. This list is being checked against The UWI's published alumni record and is not yet complete.
Fact 03
Pelican pride gets serious when trophies are involved.
Who runs most of it
Together we can make it happen
Elected students, representing every student on the Mona campus. The clubs, the societies, the culture and most of the trophies above run through them, and every one of those elected posts was won by somebody who was a first year once.
Visit the GuildStudents from across the Caribbean have been meeting, learning and building friendships here since UWI's earliest days.
Tap the Caribbean
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Swipe the map →
The UWI’s contributing countries and territories: Belize, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Dominica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago.
The UWI’s contributing countries and territories, drawn to scale. Bermuda is inset, at its own scale.
One more thing...
Explore it.
Experience it.
Make it yours.
The last thing
You just got here. Let's see what you know.
Connect with us
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Orientation photos, results, and the things that get announced at short notice. Follow before you get here and you will not be the last to know.
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