SOUTH PACIFIC UNIVERSITY MISSION TO ISLANDS DRAWS PLAN FOR GOVERNMENT ACTION

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 16

SOUTH PACIFIC UNIVERSITY MISSION TO ISLANDS DRAWS PLAN FOR GOVERNMENT ACTION

(By a Staff Reporter!

For about six months representatives of the British, Australian and New Zealand Governments have been studying the higher education requirements of a million people who live on islands in six million square miles of the South Pacific. Their report differs from earlier studies of the subject. It recommends Immediate action, outlines what that action should be, forecasts costs, and has set out a higher educational philosophy for the region.

“We have been asked.” says their report, “to recommend what kind and level of institution is required to meet the higher education needs of the region, and we have unanimously come to the firm opinion that what is needed is a fully autonomous university, comprehending within itself, as well as faculties of arts and science, the Fiji School of Medicine, the School of Agriculture in Fiji, a college for the education and training of secondary teachers, the Pacific Theological College and, so far as its activities in the field of diploma courses are concerned, the Derrick Technical Institute. Accordingly we recommend that steps be taken as soon as possible to establish such a university, to be called the University of the South Pacific.” The mission approves the conversion of the Royal New Zealand Air Force flying boat base at Lauthala Bay and envisages a capital cost of £1,375,000 for the first stage of providing for at least 600 students by 1970. 1968 Opening The university should open in 1968 with an initial staff of eight professors, four senior lecturers, and 20 lecturers. The teachers’ college should be closely associated with the university which should also have ample provision for research work, says the report. The mission has proposed entrance standards based on New Zealand University Entrance or a preliminary year of study for students who have not had the opportunity to acquire this qualification. It also recommends provision for extra-mural studies throughout the region and these should include international affairs, population studies, sociological research, human biology, economics and “the whole range of the Pacific studies of the university.” Finding that the training of students from the region in countries outside it has not always proved satisfactory, the mission has laid emphasis on courses geared to the needs of the region. Cardinal Principles It has adopted two principles of “cardinal importance”: in degree and diploma courses the highest quality must be ensured in teaching and student achievement, and all courses must be designed to take well into account both the interests and aptitudes of the students and the circum-

1 stances and needs of the countries concerned. “There is no reason in our judgment why, with good salaries and free conditions for teaching and research, the University of the South Pacific should not attract its share of distinguished professors and of young teachers of very high promise,” says the report. “On the second point, excellent courses can with good advice certainly be designed and brought into operation to suit the students and the needs of the region.” The report of the Higher Education Mission to the South Pacific was published in Britain last month for the Ministry of Overseas Development. The mission’s members were Sir Charles Morris, vicechairman of the Inter-Univer-

sity Council for Higher Education Overseas who was chairman of the group, Mr F. R. G. Aitken, a former Assistant Director of Education in New Zealand, Mr H. M. Collins, secretary of Britain’s Council for Technical Education and Training for Overseas Countries, and Mr P. W. Hughes, Director of Education in Tasmania. Teacher Shortage After surveying secondary education in the British Solomon Islands, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the New Hebrides, Cook Islands, Niue, Nauru, Western Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and American Samoa the mission reports that all concerned with educational developments are worried about the future supply of teachers to meet prospective increases in secondary school forms. In its estimate of manpower requirements the mission says: “The development of any territory depends not only on natural resources but on the provision of trained manpower to produce and market the resources and to administer the territory. . . . In these several territories, which are themselves divided further into separate geographical entities, there are close on a million people living under differing political systems and with different social environments, but their general situations bear sufficient similarity to allow some degree of common consideration. Further, such common consideration is forced by another factor, namely that the individual sizes would not permit the provision of facilities to satisfy their training requirements but, taken as a region, some degree of self-sufficiency may be possible.” Estimating the manpower requirements for the region the mission has forecast the need for 1460 students with School Certificate and 176 graduates in 1970. By 1979 the predicted requirements are 2427 students with School Certificate and 338 graduates.

The predictions were based on estimates prepared for Fiji. They comprehend the demand for civil servants, doctors, graduate and nongraduate teachers and business management. Associated Schools The mission found compelling reasons for the university to associate itself with diploma work already being done in Fiji. It expects the Fiji School of Medicine to become, In due time, a full professional and graduate school. “The case for the close association of the proposed secondary teachers’ college with the university is also very clear,” says the report. “The university ‘institute’ or ‘school’ of education, with its family of associated teachers’ colleges, is one of the discoveries of the contemporary world. In the course of time, and at its own pace, the new university will reach out towards a progressive association with primary teachers’ colleges in the various countries of the region.” The Pacific Theological College, a new institution, would greatly benefit from association with the university, and the School of Agriculture and the Derrick Technical Institute should plan and review their courses with the university to ensure that they are educationally first-class and suited to the region. No community can be without a flourishing research centre serving modern government and other activities, says the report. “Moreover, a university as a centre of research inevitably attracts research workers, for longer or shorter periods of work, from other parts of the world. Indeed the great universities, and the international bodies which endow research, and which might './ell initiate and sponsor inquiries in various fields in the South Pacific, will in general not go ahead

with the actual realisation of projects of this kind unless there is a university to deal with.” Diploma Courses It is envisaged that the university should take responsibility for the post-secondary courses being planned by the Derrick Technical Institute in such fields as applied science or chemistry, architecture, building and civil engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, industrial management, work study, banking, business studies, commercial management and public administration. To this list the mission has added a proposal for a diploma course in home and food science .with particular emphasis on nutrition and dietetics. Applied chemistry

could meet real needs in the processing of agricultural, fishery and dairy products, says the report. “The agricultural college in process of being established, with the aid of the New Zealand Government and the Freedom from Hunger Campaign, at Alafua in Western Samoa, seemed to those of us who visited it to be a candidate for association," says the deport.

“For the presumed opening of the university at the beginning of 1968 accommodation will be required for a total of 220 students on the campus,” says the report. “This includes degree students, students doing the preliminary year, and students of the teachers’ college. ... On the basis of the architect's findings we judge that these 220 students can well be accommodated in existing quarters of the R.N.Z.A.F., with only minor modifications.” Bursary Scheme The mission has calculated student fees on a full-cost-of-education basis at £550 to £6OO, without allowing for capital charges. “A good bursary scheme will be needed in each of the countries sending students; and its aim should be to ensure that no student who is qualified to go to the university and wishes to do so should be prevented by financial need.” For the initial curriculum the mission proposes eight subjects—education, English, linguistics, economics, physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics—each with a professor and two lecturers, and four subjects—histop', sociology (including social anthropology), theology and home science—each with a senior lecturer and one lecturer. In addition to the diploma courses suggested by the Derrick Institute the mission lists diploma courses in education, home and food science and applied science or chemistry to be conducted by the university itself, diploma courses in medicine and surgery and in dental surgery as taught at the Fiji School of Medicine, the diploma in agriculture at the Fiji School of Agriculture and the diploma in theology at the Pacific Theological College. Top priority should be given to the building of laboratories at Lauthala Bay and these should be followed by a' student union, administration buildings and additional hostel accommodation in the first development stage before 1970. The cost of these additions has been estimated to be £1,375,000. The operating costs in the first year have been put at nearly £200,000 of which it is expected outside sources may supply about £70,000. By 1971 recurrent annual expenditure on salaries, allowances and maintenance is expected to be £426.000. The mission has proposed a constitution for an interim or development council which should be set up to take the first steps towards the establishment of the university so that preparatory work will not have to await the drafting and consideration of legislation. Its first action would be the appointment of a vicechancellor who could work with an architect on a development plan. Such a plan will be urgently required if capital aid is to be sought from overseas sources.

The implications for New Zealand of the report of the Higher Education Mission to the South Pacific are under study by the Government departments concerned —External Affairs, Defence, Education, Island Territories and the Treasury. When the report was issued, the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) announced that the New Zealand Government favoured the report in principle as a basis for further discussions with other interested Governments.

Lauthala Bay will cease to operate as a flying boat base for the Royal New Zealand Air Force early next year and if the university project were to proceed the buildings at the base would be a major contribution by New Zealand.