<P> Since the University's inception, students and faculty have been recognized in fields ranging from the arts and sciences, to business, politics, and sports . Notable alumni and faculty include three U.W.I. (Mona) Nobel Laureates, sixty - one Rhodes Scholars, 18 current or former Caribbean Heads of Government, and an Olympic medalist . The university's cricket team previously participated in West Indian domestic cricket, but now participates as part of a Combined Campuses and Colleges team . </P> <P> This university consists of three physical campuses at Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados and the Open Campus . There are satellite campuses in Mount Hope, Trinidad and Tobago and Montego Bay, Jamaica, and a Centre for Hotel and Tourism Management in Nassau, Bahamas . The other contributing countries are served by the Open Campus which has a physical presence and Heads of Sites in each of the 18 countries . There are International Programmes for universities in the USA, Canada, China, Japan, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico such as University of Toronto, McGill University, Osaka Gakuin University, China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai University, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Emory University, University of Massachusetts, the University of Guelph, Yale University, King's College London, St Andrews University, Northeastern University, Stockholm University, University of California, Sophia University, University of Illinois and Universidad de Quintana Roo . </P> <P> The university was founded in 1948, on the recommendation of the Asquith Commission through its sub-committee on the West Indies chaired by Sir James Irvine . The Asquith Commission had been established in 1943 to review the provision of higher education in the British colonies . Initially in a special relationship with the University of London, the then University College of the West Indies (UCWI) was seated at Mona, about five miles from Kingston, Jamaica . The university was based at a camp used by evacuated Gibraltarians during the war . </P> <P> The University College achieved independent university status in 1962 . The St Augustine Campus in Trinidad, formerly the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA), was established in 1960, followed by the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados in 1963 . Before the establishment of the Open Campus, University Centres, headed by a Resident Tutor, were established in each of the other thirteen contributing territories . </P>

When was the university of the west indies established