Professor Sir Hilary Beckles

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles is Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies (The UWI). He is a distinguished academic, international thought leader, United Nations committee official, and global public activist in the field of social justice and minority empowerment.

Sir Hilary is a director of SAGICOR Financial Corporation PLC, the largest financial company in the Caribbean region, Chairman of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), the former chairman of The University of the West Indies Press, Chairman of the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] Commission on Reparation and Social Justice, President of Universities Caribbean, an editor of the UNESCO General History of Africa series and a Director of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre. He has also served as an advisor to the UN World Culture Report and Advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations on Sustainable Development. He is a past Vice President of the International Task Force for the UNESCO Slave Route Project and a past consultant for the UNESCO Cities for Peace Global Programme.

He has received numerous awards, including Honorary Doctor of Letters from Brock University, the University of Glasgow, University of Hull, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, in recognition of his major contribution to academic research on transatlantic slavery, popular culture, and sport. In 2017, the Town of Hartford in the state of Connecticut (USA), declared 21st March, “Sir Hilary Beckles Day” in recognition of his global contribution to social justice and human equality. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Award for global advocacy, academic scholarship and intellectual leadership in support of social justice, institutional equity, and economic development for marginalised and oppressed ethnicities and nations.

Under his leadership as Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, the institution established a fifth Campus – the Five Islands Campus in Antigua and Barbuda, and debuted in the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking in 2019 when it was ranked in the top 4% of the world’s best