scholarly journals Do the Pacific Islands still need a Regional University?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 86-91
Author(s):  
Eric Groves ◽  

This article offers some background on a current issue in Pacific regionalism with reference to the problems of the University of the South Pacific (USP). The South Pacific region’s greatest assets are its people. The development of the region depends greatly on the education and training of its people. Training and education are important at all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary), particularly higher education. Higher education in the South Pacific region emerged after the post-World War II and independence movement period. This started with the University of Papua New Guinea being the first official institution of higher learning to be established in the South Pacific region. Its establishment paved the way for the founding of the USP which was designed to cater to the higher education needs of 14 Pacific Island states excluding Papua New Guinea. The formation of the USP meant that the member nations within the sphere of its coverage were not able to develop their own national institutions of higher learning due to the funding model of the USP donors. This was until Samoa went against the grain and established the National University of Samoa which triggered the emergence of national institutions of higher learning throughout the region

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
Mackenzie Smith

For years, journalism education training in the Pacific has relied on donor funded short courses and expatriate media educators but in recent times this has been changing with the growth of more journalism schools at both universities and technical institutes and a more home grown actively qualified staff and proliferating research programmes. These changes can be reflected with the establishment of the new advocacy group, Media Educators Pacific (MEP). This is chaired by Misa Vicky Lepou, the president and she is also the head of journalism at the National University of Samoa. This body has a mission to promote and deliver the highest professional standards of training, education and research in media and journalism education relevant to the Pacific and beyond. In a region where the news media and journalism education have been forced to confront major hurdles such as military coups, as in Fiji; ethnic conflict, as in the Solomon Islands; and two rival governments and the ruthless crushing of student protests in Papua New Guinea in June 2016, major questions are faced. Along with critical development issues such as climate change and resources degradation, what are the challenges ahead for teaching contemporary journalists? These were some of the issues explored by this panel at the Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) conference in Auckland in July 2016. The panel was chaired by the Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie. Speakers were Emily Matasororo of the University of Papua New Guinea, Shailendra Singh of the University of the South Pacific, Misa Vicky Lepou of the National University of Samoa and Charlie David Mandavah of the Vanuatu Institute of Technology. Eliki Drugunalevu of the University of the South Pacific provided a summing up.


Author(s):  
Mavhungu Abel Mafukata

The South African government has lobbied institutions of higher learning to recruit academics from across Africa to address the challenge of shortage of skills. Some universities have indeed exploited this opportunity. However, it has emerged that these nationals get to face unbearable anti-social behavior from the locals. Among others, these expatriates contend incidences of tribal-ethnic tensions and xenophobia. Multiple theories were adopted to assist the analysis. The results revealed that there was evidence of tribalism, ethnicity, and incited xenophobia at this university. Furthermore, the study found that the acts of tribalism and ethnicity cut across the university community. The study revealed that deaneries and departments reflected ethnic-tribal orientations depending on the tribes of the respective incumbents in those sections. The university should recognise that it has become a space of cultural diversity where people should be recognized outside the ethnic and tribal framework of locality.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
G S Burr ◽  
J W Beck ◽  
Thierry Corrège ◽  
G Cabioch ◽  
F W Taylor ◽  
...  

This paper presents radiocarbon results from modern South Pacific corals from the Marquesas Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Easter Island. All of the measurements are from pre-bomb Porites corals that lived during the 1940s and 1950s. The data reflect subannual to multiannual surface ocean 14C variability and allow for precise, unambiguous reservoir age determinations. The results are compared with published values from other coral records throughout the South Pacific, with striking consistency. By comparisons with other published values, we identify 3 South Pacific regions with uniform pre-bomb reservoir ages (1945 to 1955). These are 1) the Central Equatorial South Pacific (361.6 − 8.2 14C yr, 2 σ); 2) the Western Equatorial South Pacific (322.1 − 8.6 14C yr, 2 σ); and 3) the subtropical Pacific (266.8 − 13.8 14C yr, 2 σ).


1980 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-104
Author(s):  
J. F. Ward

The University of the South Pacific, now a decade old, serves about eleven sovereign countries of the South Pacific Region. Its science courses introduce electrical topics and principles of communications normally met with in electrical engineering courses. Material science and energy considerations round off this knowledge in the context of the needs of the region.


2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-162
Author(s):  
Uppinder Mehan

The Society for Critical Exchange held its first Winter Theory Institute from11-14 February 2010 at the University of Houston-Victoria, located inVictoria, Texas. Eleven scholars from a variety of disciplines and fromacross the United States came together to present and discuss their currentwork on questions regarding the affect terror and terrorism are having oneducation in higher education. The participants presented their work by turn,and all took part in the intense two days fully devoted to the discussions.Some of the questions we hoped to address included the following: Howhave institutions of higher learning responded to the specter of terror? Howshould academe respond? What is our professional role in a terroristicworld? ...


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott MacWilliam

After a promising start as the place where many of the country’s future leaders were educated, the University of Papua New Guinea is now a shadow of its former self. With minimal international support and destructive government policies ranking tertiary education of little importance for development, UPNG now operates on a budget totally inadequate to run a contemporary university. The minimal coverage of UPNG’s decline in the national media is reflected in a poorly run journalism programme which has had a stop-start history. By comparison, the University of the South Pacific thrives and its management set targets to raise the proportion of people from member countries who attend tertiary education. International support, financial as well as supervisory, continues to make a major contribution to USP’s operations. During major crises in Fiji, where USP’s main campus is located, journalism students at the university have performed exemplary roles. Even the controversies which repeatedly surface about the programme indicate its continuing importance at USP.  This essay argues that only the formation of a substantial consortium, with international donors joining a PNG government committed to a dramatic reversal of policy, can rescue what began as the country’s premier tertiary institution. The demand for skilled and managerial labour in the South Pacific’s second largest country, by population, requires a revitalised UPNG which could in turn lead a major reform of tertiary education and indeed all education.


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