By Katalina Siasau

The 101^st University of the South Pacific (USP) Council Meeting was officially opened today by the Prince Regent, HRH Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala, at ‘Api Mataka, Ministry of Education, in Nuku’alofa, with a call for principled leadership to guide the region’s future.

Highlighting USP’s enduring legacy, the Prince Regent praised the university for shaping Pacific leaders across diverse fields and urged steady stewardship in navigating the challenges ahead.

"The University of the South Pacific was not conceived as merely another university," he said. "Its founders conceived it as a covenant, a shared institution created by Pacific nations for Pacific peoples. Grounded in the conviction that our oceans do not divide us but connect us, His Late Majesty, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV understood that political independence alone is insufficient; true sovereignty requires investing in and working together to emancipate minds."

He added that HM King Tupou VI reaffirms that bond through the chancellorship, and that the council meeting here in Tonga honours it further.

The Prince Regent noted that USP has long nurtured the region’s leaders, teachers, scientists, health professionals, and public servants. "Among USP’s Tongan alumni are people who have led this country and served it at the highest levels. Each one of them matters, and in a small and poor country, we cannot afford to misuse a single capable mind, because Tonga’s only endowment is her people."

Addressing the council directly, he emphasized their critical role amid growing regional and global challenges. "You are responsible for our safe passage. Facing you are many challenges—climate change, technological disruptions, shifting geopolitics, demographic changes, and evolving student expectations—that are already shaping the environment in which higher education operates. This council is charged to respond to these pressures. The peoples of 14 Pacific nations are watching, seeking the steady, honest, principled stewardship this moment requires to get us home safe."

USP Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council, the Rt. Hon. Siosiua Utoikamanu, welcomed HRH’s remarks and reaffirmed the Council’s role as custodians of an institution built by the region, for the region.