Mourant Ozannes has become the
first firm to step up with a $5,000 corporate sponsorship for the academic
chair at the International College of the Cayman Islands. The chair sponsorship
programme is a strategic move to expand ICCI’s business programme and raise the
bar in higher education.
The Mourant Ozannes corporate
sponsorship will go toward funding the academic chair in either finance or
accounting.
Neal Lomax, the managing partner of
Mourant Ozannes in the Cayman Islands, said “the partners at Mourant Ozannes
all felt strongly that this was a good way to support locally available
tertiary education in the finance field.
“Supporting ICCI with an academic
chair also enables a healthy level of connectivity and mentorship between our
lawyers and the finance students at ICCI, in the form of legal lectures that we
shall look forward to giving at the institution periodically,” he added.
“Bringing in a professor in finance
or accounting who understands the dynamics of the financial services sector and
who can also do top notch research will bring the business programme to a new
level,” said International College President John Cummings. “We already prepare
our graduates for the business world by combining academic theory and practical
skills of critical thinking and problem solving. The academic chair is a strategic
move to raise the bar in higher education.”
As the business environment has
become more competitive in recent years, more students are enrolling in the
accounting, finance, banking and management programmes to meet the demands in
the employer’s market. The academic chair is the next step in broadening the
business programme offerings, said International College Dean Scott Cummings.
“Mourant Ozannes recognised right
away that the academic chair will provide students with more exposure to high
quality instruction, research and the benefit of the professor’s industry
experience,” Mr. Cummings said. “It is exciting to have a firm of this stature
to be the first company to provide this level of corporate sponsorship for this
new initiative. I know this is just the beginning, other firms will follow in
Mourant Ozannes’ lead.”
Since the International College is
a nonprofit, private institution that keeps its tuition at an affordable level,
corporate sponsorship is key to growing and expanding the school’s offering,
added Mr. Cummings. He plans to have the academic chair fully funded to hire a
professor by the start of the 2011 academic year.
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