University of the Antilles and Guyana - Martinique

March 10 - The Rotary Club of Fort de France West arranged a tour for the team of the Martinique campus of the University of the Antilles and Guyana (UAG - Université des Antilles et de la Guyane) located in the city of Schoelcher just outside Fort de France.

Two of the club members work at the university - Philippe Saint-Cyr is head of the Martinique campus, and Gerard Marion (photo) is on the history faculty.

The UAG serves all three French departments (states) in the Caribbean - Guadeloupe, French Guyana and Martinique. The main office, including the president - of the university is located on Martinique, a fact that does not always sit well with the university staff on Guadeloupe and in Guyana. There are a total of 12,000 students attending the university - about 5,500 are in Martinique.

The three campuses are not mirror images. The campus in Guadeloupe offers the most diverse courses, mostly dealing in the sciences, and is the venue for the school of medicine. Martinique mostly deals with the liberal arts, law, economics and political science. Guyana, home of the France's space program, focuses on technology.

The president of the university, Pascal Saffache, met with the team.

Heidi, Shelly and Monica reliving those college years

The Rotary Club of Lamentin, who hosted us on Tuesday, had their blood collection mobile on campus when we visited.