By: Staff Writer
March 13, 2026
A senior official at the University of the West Indies said on an Inter-American Development Bank Annual Group meeting panel on Wednesday that private investors are needed to help shape education but shy away due to the complexities the education sector comes with.
Sandrea Maynard, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Affairs at The University of the West Indies, said on the panel Business Forum: Harnessing Opportunities, Unlocking Growth that: “Education is one of those areas that has this perception about being about the public good, firstly, so often, because there are uncertainties with regards to returns and bankability, as we have heard with all of my fellow panellists.
“A lot of investors tend to shy away from working in the education space, or private investors. They feel that often the complexities around accreditation and approvals and of course, often, governments, are the ones who have invested initially, and they support elements of education.
“So moving it away from that perception is often a challenge. So really, what we should be looking at is reframing education as an economic infrastructure, because by doing that it allows private investors to see the benefit of investing.
She continued: “And how do we attract those? We’ve attracted, thankfully, the International School of Development Justice, and that is really looking out globally using technology, not only digitalization, but also using AI within that space to support learning.”
Maynard also said: “But I think that often the challenge is, when we’re looking to attract investors, they’ve got to also appreciate that there is a long-term goal ahead in these areas, particularly in education.
“When you invest in education, normally you don’t realize the returns for maybe sort of 10 to 20 years.
She added: “I’m especially working in tertiary education, so you more than likely would see the turnaround a little bit quicker.
But what we would like to see is the fact that private investors see the value in investing in their employees, the value in educating them so that they can bring something back into that organization and benefit its advancement.
“So I would say we do have challenges with complexity around regulation. We do have those challenges around what would be perceived as bankability. Just remember that we can actually really significantly contribute from the education sector to where we see ourselves in the future, in that global space.”