Departments

The Human Resource Department

Introduction: The Hugh Wooding Law School Human Resources (HR) Department plays a pivotal role in ensuring the efficient and effective functioning of the institution. This department is dedicated to managing the human capital within the organisation and aligning it with the overall mission and goals of the institution. The following is an overview of the objectives and purpose of the Hugh Wooding Law School HR Department.

Objectives of the HR Department:

Talent Acquisition and Recruitment: One of the primary objectives of the HR Department is to attract highly qualified and talented individuals to join the Hugh Wooding Law School community.
Employee Development and Training: The HR Department strives to enhance staff members’ knowledge, skills, and competencies. This is achieved through training programs, workshops, and professional development opportunities designed to help employees grow in their roles and contribute effectively to the institution’s mission.
Employee Engagement and Retention: Maintaining a motivated and engaged workforce is essential for the sustained success of the law school. HR works to create a positive work environment that fosters employee satisfaction, well-being, and retention. Strategies such as employee recognition programs and open communication channels are utilised to achieve this objective.
Compliance and Policies: The HR Department ensures that all employment practices and policies are compliant with local labour laws and regulations. This includes developing and enforcing HR policies, ensuring fair and ethical treatment of employees, and promoting diversity and inclusion within the organisation.
Performance Management: HR oversees performance appraisal processes, helping employees and managers set clear performance expectations and provide constructive feedback. This objective aims to enhance individual and organisational performance, leading to continuous improvement.

The Hugh Wooding Law School HR Department plays a multifaceted role in supporting the institution’s success by attracting, developing, and retaining a dedicated workforce while ensuring compliance and fostering a positive work environment. By pursuing these objectives and fulfilling its purpose, HR contributes significantly to the achievement of the law school’s educational mission and objectives.

Quality Assurance & Institutional Effectiveness

The Quality Policy

It is the policy of the Council of Legal Education to provide legal education and training that is internationally competitive- producing highly capable and motivated graduates who are equipped to meet the challenges of the legal profession in the 21st century and beyond.

The Hugh Wooding Law School is an institution of the Council of Legal Education and registered by the Accreditation Council of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Law School agrees to enforce the quality policy of the Council of Legal Education. In this context, HWLS provides quality postgraduate vocational education to its students. It seeks to prepare them as competent advocates, interviewers, advisers, negotiators, writers, managers, draftsmen and researchers within the legal and judicial sectors in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana and the Eastern Caribbean States.

More specifically, the Law School has embraced five management values which enshrine the behaviours adopted by all departments as they manage quality within the institution. Thus, the Law School facilitates:

1) Shared Decision Making
HWLS believes in staff and student participation when making decisions. We encourage feedback through a variety of channels and avenues to provide advice on how we decide on our strategies and actions.

2) Principled Leadership
HWLS believes in doing things the right way. We are committed to good governance by adhering to our corporate policies and procedures.

3) Continuously Improving Quality
HWLS believes in always finding better ways of doing what we do. We ensure that our quality management system is effectively planned, monitored and reviewed by having cycles of audits and reviews of courses and the services we provide.

4) Performance Delivery
HWLS believes in meeting its business goals. We ensure that performance assessments are done at the school, departmental and employee levels for organizational effectiveness.

5) Placing Customers First
HWLS believes that the customer is the main priority in our work. We ensure that the customers’ (who are primarily students) views are given priority by attentively listening to their needs, offering service to them and communicating service feedback.

What do we do?

The Office for Quality Assurance, Research and Effectiveness is a specialised semi-autonomous office at the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS). It adopts the Plan-Do-Study-Act Model to ensure a seamless connection between quality planning and quality assurance across the institution. The Office’s primary purpose is to support the Law School in developing and maintaining its Quality Management System (QMS). The QMS encompasses processes, policies and procedures to ensure the institution realises its Mission Statement and meets its strategic objectives and quality standards. These processes, policies and procedures include those managed by the Office and academic and non-academic processes across the Law School.

The Office liaises with several stakeholders, namely students, employers, graduates and external agencies, to gather feedback on the school’s programme and services. This feedback is used to improve the quality of education and training at the HWLS. The Office also liaises with accreditation authorities, regulatory bodies and, as required, those agencies responsible for establishing quality assurance in the higher education sector nationally, regionally and internationally that may impact the school’s effective functioning.

Our Vision
“We envision the Office as the nucleus for change and improvement within the Hugh Wooding Law School.”

Our Motto
“Quality Begins With You”

Our Functions

1) Evidence-Based Inquiry
We perform institutional research through surveys, assessments, interviews and focus groups to collect data to measure and monitor the Law School’s programme and services. These research activities are based on the established Institutional Research Agenda of the HWLS.

2) Critical Analysis
We analyse data from institutional research and internal quality reviews to identify improvement areas and inform planning and policy development.

3) Develop Improvement Projects
We design and establish projects to create sustainable organisational improvement and effectiveness pathways.

4) Assurance of Excellence
We undertake periodic internal and external reviews to report on organisational compliance and improvement. We also prepare reports by liaising with accreditation authorities.

Ongoing Quality Assurance Activities

1) Course Assessment by Students (Doctrinal Courses, Legal Aid Programme and Trial Advocacy Course): This annual institutional research activity allows us to gather students’ feedback on the quality of teaching within the courses of the Legal Education Certificate programme.

2) Recent Graduate Feedback Survey: We have established an annual survey, which allows recent graduates to provide feedback on the quality of the student support services, administration and teaching and learning.

3) Employers’ Satisfaction Survey: We have established a triennial survey which allows employers to give feedback on the effectiveness of graduates and the Legal Education Certificate programme.

4) Customer Satisfaction Survey: We have established surveys that allow customers and clients to provide feedback on the quality of service in the administration area, cafeteria services and the Legal Aid Clinic.

5) Graduate Tracer Study: We have established a triennial survey which allows graduates to give feedback on their professional advancement, employability and the relevance of the Legal Education Certificate programme to their jobs.

6) Internal Quality Audit: We have established an Internal Quality Audit Procedure to ensure the QMS is effectively implemented, compliance with quality standards, and identify continuous improvement opportunities. Planned internal quality audits include providing adequate human resources, administering the examination process, evaluating and developing tutors, and the admission process.

7) Monitoring the Strategic Plan: We supported the monitoring of the strategic plan implementation by creating implementation checklists, collecting departmental data and preparing progress reports.

The Team

Ms Miriam Samaru – Principal (Quality Champion/Executive Sponsor)

Mr Lyndon Abdool – Manager, Office for Quality Assurance, Research & Effectiveness

Ms Lauren Raghubir – Institutional Research Officer

Mr Wayne Rock – Quality Assurance Officer

Ms Marsha Garcia-Scobie – Secretary

Departments

Departments

Departments

The Human Resource Department

Quality Assurance & Institutional Effectiveness

The Quality Policy

What do we do?

The Team

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