The University of the West Indies at Mona, in collaboration with Guardian Life Limited, offers a biennial Teaching Award which is intended to recognize the outstanding teaching accomplishments of the academic staff. It is exclusively for teaching and all relevant aspects of teaching that help create an environment in which teaching excellence is valued and fostered and is linked to effective learning.

The first UWI/Guardian Life Premium Teaching Awards was held in 2004 and Dr. Willard Pinnock from the Department of Chemistry was the only recipient. In 2006 the recipient was Dr. Tomlin Paul of the Department of Community Health and Psychiatry.

In 2008 for the first time two recipients were awarded, namely Dr. Michelle Hamilton of the Department of Biochemistry and Dr. Michael Ponnambalam of the Department of Physics.