USP Students' Assoc SG calls on Fiji Govt to release funds for university [1]
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - 20:53. Updated on Thursday, October 7, 2021 - 11:02.
Emosi Vakarua, the Secretary General of the University of the South Pacific Students' Association is calling on the Fijian Government to release the grant payments that it owes to the University of the South Pacific (USP).
The Fijian government has withheld its annual grant contributions to the USP since 2019
Emosi told The Fiji Village yesterday that the severe lack of cash funding to the USP affects the students, who are the major stakeholders in the university.
The Fiji government is the largest contributor of grants for USP.
In November 2018, Professor Pal Ahluwalia was recruited by the USP Joint Committee of Council, and Senate as the Vice-Chancellor, and the President of the University of the South Pacific with a mandate to reform and modernise the 52-year-old institution.
Professor Pal Ahluwalia replaced the USP Vice-Chancellor and President professor Rajesh Chandra, whose term ended in December 2018.
However, the Fijian government’s relationship with the USP struck a sour note after the new Vice Chancellor Professor Ahluwalia, alleged widespread irregularities occured under the 10-year term of the former vice-chancellor Prof Rajesh Chandra and pro-chancellor Thompso, and attracted intense public scrutiny on the university.
In early February 2021, it was reported that the Fiji Police carried out a midnight raid at the home of Professor Ahluwalia and deported him and his wife on orders of the Prime Minister.
The USP Council and Senate Secretariat had reaffirmed that Professor Ahluwalia was not dismissed from his post.
“The Council was not consulted over Professor Pal Ahluwalia’s deportation,” USP said. “It has not made a decision to dismiss him and expressed disappointment that it was not advised, as Professor Ahluwalia’s employer, of the decision to deport him.”
The Council has reinstated Professor Ahluwalia and he will be based at the USP campus in Samoa.
Fiji’s Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told the Fiji Parliament in August that if the office of the Vice Chancellor was in Samoa, “it should now be the responsibility of the Samoan Government to host the office.”
Meanwhile, Fiji's Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaoiyum today, 15 September, clarified that the Fijian government would not release the grants to the USP "until there is proper transparency at the university", reported The Fiji Village.