It is my distinct pleasure to announce that the 3rd Annual UWI London Benefit Dinner will be held on Friday, 4th December 2026, at The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, under the theme “Educate to Elevate: Sustain, Surmount, Succeed.”

Each year, this evening becomes something more than a gathering — it becomes a reaffirmation. A reaffirmation that the story of Caribbean excellence is still being written, and that so many of you, across continents and generations, remain determined to write it. On the 4th of December, alumni, partners, members of the diplomatic corps, business leaders, philanthropists, and friends of The University of the West Indies will once again convene in London to stand behind that story.

The UWI has never simply educated — it has elevated. It has taken the sons and daughters of a region once defined by what it lacked, and shown the world what it possesses: brilliance, resilience, and vision. This dinner exists to sustain that work. Every scholarship funded, every research chair endowed, every young mind given the chance to rise, begins with an evening like this one — with people like you choosing to believe in what the Caribbean can still become.

This year's theme calls us to sustain what we have built, to surmount the challenges still before us — economic, environmental, social — and to succeed not for ourselves, but for the generations who will inherit what we leave behind. It is a call to reimagine what sustainability and social parity mean for a Caribbean identity still being forged.

Your presence at this table is not a formality. It is an act of partnership in a mission far larger than one evening — a mission to ensure that talent, wherever it is born, is never wasted for lack of opportunity. I would be honoured to welcome you to Lincoln's Inn for an evening of fellowship, reflection, and renewed purpose, as we work together toward a fairer, more prosperous Caribbean future.

Thank you, as ever, for your friendship and your unwavering support of The University of the West Indies.  I do hope you will join us.