The University of the West Indies: Performing against the odds

KINGSTON, Jamaica - A few days ago the BBC Television World Service interviewed one of the wealthiest people in China. She will be 48 years old next month and her assets are worth US$3.6 billion. Zhang Xin was born into abject poverty, began working in a sweat-shop, lived in a single room with her mother in Hong Kong, saved from her paltry earnings to buy a ticket to the United Kingdom where she took secretarial classes while working. Then she attended my alma mater, Sussex University, where she studied Economics before going on to Cambridge University to get a Master's degree in Development Economics. In 1995 she set up what is now the largest property development company in China, of which she is the chief executive officer. When asked what she believes was the key to her success, her answer was unequivocal - education.