Over 4,000 students will graduate during the next two days at the UWI, Sport and Physical Education Centre in St Augustine.
In all, students from different faculties will graduate in six separate graduation ceremonies.
Yesterday, the Faculty of Science and Technology and Food and Agriculture held their graduation ceremony.
Calypsonian Andrew Marcano, better known as Lord Superior, and calypso composer Winsford “Joker” DeVine were conferred with honorary Doctor of Letters for their work in the calypso arena.
Newly-appointed Chancellor Robert Bermudez advised the graduates that their success would be limited by their own hands.
“It would only be limited by your hands. Aim for the stars, the only regret you will have in life is the things you fail to do,” he said.
He told the students that they were independent and could make their own way in the world.
“Your ability to think...it is an asset in which you can never lose. Don’t let anyone discourage you from your dreams. There will be obstacles but you can get over them,” he said.
He advised the graduands not to be afraid of change.
“You can’t allow yourself to be paralysed by the circumstances. We are no longer who our fathers were. It is an exciting place where dreams can come through,” he said.
Valedictorian Zia Barnard said that the knowledge, skills and a sense of regionalism learnt at the university could make a difference in the Caribbean.
Barnard said there were many social, economic, environmental, agricultural, health and safety and unemployment issues which needed to be tackled.
“Let us set aside our egocentric and envious tendencies. Let us cast away political hatchets, racial and religious ideologies that divide us,” she said.
“As a UWI graduate, we are never the underdog. Our training and the tradition at the UWI will serve us well in any environment,” she said.
The graduation statistics revealed that 67.5 per cent of the students were female with 2,647 undergraduate degrees with the Faculties of Social Sciences and Medical Science certifying more than 500 undergraduate students.
Some 1,369 students were awarded graduate degrees including 233 educators from the Faculty of Humanities and Education who represented the largest graduate programme for the year.