There are a number of small-scale community colleges across the country that are open to any student looking to further their post-secondary education. As expected, there is an application process that students must complete before being accepted.
In 1974, one of the larger colleges within the Bahamas opened its doors with offerings of associate degrees, certificates, and diplomas. The College of the Bahamas was an equivalent of a state school in terms of how prestigious it was. As time went on, the Bahamas realized that in order for them to keep up with the competitive edge of universities, they would have to expand their programs. Various bachelor's degrees were added in fields of Nursing, Business, and Education around the early 1990s which accelerated their program developments.
The College Council continued to grow their institution by adding various buildings to provide educational environments for the different career fields. All of the expanding they were doing was what set off the idea of creating an upgraded College of the Bahamas: University of the Bahamas. A committee was created to handle all of the planning that would go into the future University and by August 2006 a plan was finalized. The transition was one that took time, but by August 2016 the President of the University's academic committee, Jerome Fitzgerald, announced that the College of the Bahamas was officially the University of the Bahamas.
The University expresses that its mission is to promote a higher education for their students that will benefit them in all aspects of their careers. University of the Bahamas strives to build the commonwealth of their country, so it is more than worth it to them to have built something as large-scale as the new institution.