University of Guyana School of Medicine, Guyana

The University of Guyana is Guyana’s sole national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: “To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for the service of the community, the nation, and of all mankind within an atmosphere of academic freedom that allows for free and critical enquiry.”

It began its operations in October of the same year at Queens College, the nation’s premier secondary school, before moving to the Turkeyen Campus in 1970. At first, programmes were confined to the Arts, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. A Faculty of Education was created in 1967, and this was followed by the Faculty of Technology in 1969, the Institute for Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE), began as an extra-mural unit, in 1975, the Faculties of Agriculture (1977) and Health Sciences (1981), the latter as an outgrowth of Natural Sciences.

A Forestry Unit was established in 1987 and it subsequently became part of the Faculty of Agriculture, and in 2003 the Faculties of Arts and Education merged to become the School of Education and Humanities. The University of Guyana expanded in 2000 with the addition of the Tain Campus in Berbice.

The University of Guyana now offers more than 60 under-graduate and graduate (post- graduate) programmes, including in Natural Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Forestry, Urban Planning and Management, Tourism Studies, Education, Creative Arts, Economics, Law, Medicine, Optometry and Nursing.

The institution has a 2016 enrollment of some 8,000 students, and it has graduated more than 20,000 students, who have gone on to successful careers locally, regionally and internationally in all professional fields of endeavor. The University also is a major contributor to the public and private sectors and to the national economy.

The University offers certificate, diploma, associate degree, undergraduate degree, graduate (post-graduate) degree, and professional degree programs.

The University of Guyana Library provides information to serve the teaching, learning and research needs of the Faculties, Schools and Departments of the University of Guyana, as well as its extramural arm the Institute of Distance of Continuing Education (IDCE). It also strives to meet the needs of the wider local and international communities.

The Library also provides a variety of resources which support and extend the teaching, learning and research programmes of the University. The stock comprises an estimated 400,000 items of print material as well as a significant amount of non-print and electronic materials. Apart from being a legal deposit, the Library is also a partial depository for the United Nations and several of its arms, and the International Development Bank (IDB).