Author: Manaini Rokotuivuna

The University of Fiji recognizes the importance of climate change adaptation and mitigation and Fiji’s Presidency at COP23 and has therefore devised a plan in the lead up to COP23 in November.

Ms Priyatma Singh, from the Department of Science at the University of Fiji said that one of the key priorities of the University was to create awareness on the important role of Fijian Government in addressing the vulnerability of Small Island Developing States to Climate related risks.

“As a University our role would be to promote the two major events (COP23 and United Nations Oceans Conference on Sea and Oceans) and create awareness especially since Fiji assumes presidency at COP23 in Bonn, Germany,” she said.

She further stated that the School of Science and Technology plans to hold events on a monthly basis in the lead up to COP23.

“We will try to host small interactive student seminar sessions building up to COP 23 every month beginning from 10th of April. Some of the probable seminar topics discussed would include: Climate Change Reality for Pacific Island Nations  – Role of Fijian Government at COP 23 ( To be facilitated by a government  official); Oceans & Climate Change -( Facilitators – PIDF and The University of Fiji );Climate Change Research at the University of Fiji – (Facilitators – Department of Science and The University of Fiji PACAM project team); Climate change Adaptation and Mitigation (Facilitators – One of the NGO’s ),” she explained.

The University also had a small presentation last Friday during the World Water Day where we informed University and high school students about COP 23.

Following is a plan initiated by the Department of Science for awareness on COP23:

• The University of Fiji will collaborate with Pacific Islands Development Forum Secretariat to conduct a special public seminar on Oceans and Climate Change on the 28^th of April, with the intention of creating public awareness on the United Nations’ SDG 14 and UNFCCC COP 23. Students and other important stakeholders would be invited to attend and their opinions would also be taken into consideration.
• The University would also be creating awareness and hosting special student/community activities at events such as the World Earth day, World Environment day and World Oceans Day.
• The University of Fiji in partnership with McDonald’s Fiji would be conducting a UniFiji -McDonald’s Eco-Contest in July. This year’s Eco-contest will place an even greater emphasis on climate issues in support of Fiji’s Presidency to the COP23 deliberations in Bonn, Germany. In keeping with the core objective of the annual COP meetings; issues such as climate change adaption, mitigation and disaster risk reduction are a few key areas that will be highlighted over the course of the competitions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1 Co-Chair- Industrial Collaboration, Communication and Documentation of KBDCU conference, Dr Ajantha Perera.

 

The Knowledge Based Development Conference of Unifiji (KBDCU) scheduled for the 6^th of May 2017 is a solution based conference says Technical and Research Officer of the Vice Chancellor’s office at UniFiji, Dr Ajantha Perera, who is also the Co-Chair- Industrial Collaboration, Communication and Documentation of KBDCU.

“It’s a solution based conference  in terms of teamwork; the research done by one person can’t solve all the problems so that’s why the research work of everyone is put together in one forum so that people can listen to each other and use the acquired knowledge for development,” she explained.

The KBDCU is a conference where academics as well as the corporate and government sectors could come together to discuss about the development of the country.

“For developing countries like Fiji, it is vital that academics and researchers, who are at the Universities, assist in the development program thus contribute towards development of Fiji as a nation, it needs the knowledge that is available from sciences, arts, music, literature, engineering and technology to come together so that they can prepare an action plan, prepare certain strategies, and how they could contribute to the development of the country,” she explained.

The conference would be divided into two parts where the first half (in the morning) would see discussion between academics from USP, FNU and UniFiji and the second half where the discussion would be expanded to the corporate sector.

“We would be inviting people from the different Universities (UniFiji, USP and FNU) and the corporate sector to come together to discuss about the research that is being done already. First half of the conference, which is the morning session would see a presentation of 40 papers from academic from USP, FNU and UniFiji,” she stated.

“In the afternoon we would be bringing the corporate sector to discuss with the research paper presenters as to how the corporate sector would like to liaise with the academic sector to take the research further and what they could use from the findings for their own development work as well as the development of the country,” she commented.

The University would like to humbly invite corporate sector from all works, NGOs, Government sectors, foreign sectors, academics as well as students to attend the conference.

KBDCU would be hosted at the University of Fiji Saweni campus on May 6, 2017.

 

 

The University of Fiji played a fundamental role as a major sponsors for the International Conference to Commemorate the Centennial of the Abolition of Indian Indentureship (CCAII).

The event was held at The University of Fiji from March 22 – March 24, 2017. During the actual conference, 25 Student Volunteers from The University of Fiji were instrumental in the swift transition of the four parallel sessions.  It was equally exciting times for The University of Fiji’s 25 students  being part of the largest International Conference in the South Pacific  through Student Volunteer initiative.

Student Volunteer Coordinators, Ms. Manpreet Kaur and Ms. Sanjaleen Prasad of Department of Language, Literature and Communication and Mr. Avineel Kumar from School of Business and Economics are proud of the students commitment, leadership and team work that they have displayed over the past three days. Majority of the Student Volunteers are students of LLC, i-Taukei and Hindi majors.

The Executive Director Finance, Mr. Ravineet Sami also played an essential role in coordinating all the logistical arrangements needed for the Conference. The three academic and managerial staff of The University of Fiji  worked closely with the organizers of the international conference.

Ms. Manpreet Kaur, said ‘The conference was an opportune time  to meet with scholars and academics from around the world and equally stimulating experience for our students to par-take in the conference either as Student Volunteers or attending the myriad sessions during the conference.

Ms. Sanjaleen Prasad shared that: ‘our 25 students played a key role in facilitating the logistical aspect of this international conference.

Mr. Avineel Kumar, was pleased to be a part of this conference. Brendon Shamher,  one of the student volunteer’s is looking forward to the yet another conference that UniFiji will host. He adds this it will definitely provide hands-on management skills and other soft skills better preparing UniFiji graduates for employability.

The Coordinators are thankful to the UniFiji ground staff, security, taxi service, cafeteria, Support staff, IT Section and other key personnels, who assisted in making  the conference a success.

Societies and the school systems need to move away from the traditional focus on schooling and
concentrate on learning, says Vice-Chancellor Prof. Prem Misir.
“Schools need to develop the capacity of students to learn on their own; to become involved with
lifelong learning; and to develop a coping capacity for risk and change,” he said.
Speaking at the Fiji Teachers’ Registration Authority (FTRA) program at the University of Fiji,
Prof. Misir explained that while being in school was necessary (Fiji has universal primary
education), the emphasis now has to be on learning.
“The pursuit of a knowledge society requires a revolution in education that would remove all
traditional barriers to teaching, accessibility, curriculum, and quality,” he stated.
“Traditionally, teachers are the only resource of knowledge; where they present facts only for
students to have examination successes; in pursuit of the knowledge society, teachers should be
facilitators of the learning process, where they help students learn how to learn,” he quoted
Berryman, 2000.
Vice-Chancellor said that the focus should be put on learning because it helped in building a
knowledge society through the development of new knowledge, and innovation.
“Individual’s skills determine productivity and capacity to be innovative, in order to build a
knowledge society. The World Bank report (2011) demonstrates that skill levels in a workforce
forecast economic growth rates more reliably than do average time spent in schooling,” he
reinforced.
He concluded by saying that interdisciplinarity, internationalization, and industry collaboration
were significant in the modernization of education practices for building a knowledge society.
The FTRA program was attended by over 20 people from the education field as well as staff of
School of Humanities and Arts at UniFiji.