University May

Chances Of Fiji University May Be Surveyed

A university within the South Pacific Islands is a dream often discussed, but one that is only a little closer to reality than it ever was. No South Seas territory has any plans for a university at present, although an education commission currently working in Papua-New Guinea will report on the possibility of establish ing a university there.

WEST New Guinea, under the Indonesians, claims to have a university, but this is something of a joke. A university without stan dards is worse than no university at all—a point which was made the other day by Mr. Harold Houghton, Deputy Adviser on Education in the UK Department of Technical Co operation, after he had finished a fact-finding tour of Fiji.

Mr. Houghton paid particular at tention to the possibilities of establish ing a university in Fiji, and said bluntly he could see no hope of Fiji being in a position to award its own degree within the next 20 years.

The best Mr. Houghton could promise was a university college, but not for the next five years at least.

He agreed there was ground for thinking seriously about the establish ment of such a college as soon as the Colony knew its own needs for trained manpower, and as soon as finance could be found.

Must Be A Good One He said that when he returned to England he would recommend that the UK Government send a team of education experts to Fiji to examine the matter thoroughly—as New Guinea is doing.

Mr. Houghton said that in all his discussions about higher education he had assumed that Fiji did not want anything but a good university.

“Nobody would have the slightest use for a bad university,” he said. if Fiji rushed into the project without the proper groundwork she would get something the very reverse of what she wanted, and certainly nothing of which she could be proud.

Mr. Houghton said there was a lot of goodwill in New Zealand towards establishing a Fiji university, and probably also in Australia although help from that quarter was an unknown quantity.

Mr. Houghton said he would like o see other territories like the BSIP, me New Hebrides and Tonga as the recruiting ground for a university college - When asked if they could be active partners in establishing a university he said that the suggestion did not make sense at present because the 2*-" er territories lacked resources. If Fiji had to wait for them to come m she would wait a long time, he said.

A university college would be closely affiliated with a university overseas, and the course would be regarded as an integral part of the degree course of that university.

He added: “A lot of establish ments in India are awarding degrees which I honestly think would not help the holder”, he said. “Some of these degrees I would not regard as the equivalent of good honest sixth form work in a secondary school in Fiji”.