University of Fiji

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The University of Fiji


Established	2005
Vice-Chancellor	Professor Rajesh Chandra
Location	Lautoka, Fiji
Website	www.unifiji.ac.fj/

The University of Fiji is a university based in Saweni, Lautoka, Fiji. It was established in February 2005 under academic leadership of the Fiji Institute of Applied Studies and financial sponsorship of the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, a Hindu religious organization dedicated to education. Its website describes it as a "private, nonpartisan and non-profit making university." On 14 February 2006, the Native Lands Trust Board (NLTB) signed a 99-year lease with the university for the 5-hectare property, for which the university paid F$100,000. The university agreed in return to provide two scholarships annually for the children of landowners.

1 University finance and administration
2 Future plans and goals
3 University of Fiji Council
4 Sources

[edit] University finance and administration

The university is governed by the University of Fiji Council. In addition to the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, stakeholders include the Shri Sanatan Dharam, the Fiji Muslim League, the Gujarat Education Society, the Sikh Education Society, the Andhra Sangam, the TISI Sangam, the Kabir Path Sabha, and the Fiji Teachers Union. The university has also invited the University of the South Pacific, the Fiji Council of Churches, the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma, the Roman Catholic Church in Fiji, the Fiji Girmit Centre, the Great Council of Chiefs, the Ba Provincial Council, the Fijian Teachers Association, and the Ministry of Education to appoint representatives to the Council.

Benefactors include the India-Fiji Festival Committee, which on 16 February 2006 donated F$10,000 to the university for the tertiary education of underprivileged students.

The University of Fiji has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Australia's University of Canberra to foster collaboration in research and facilitate exchanges of staff and students. Vice-Chancellor Rajesh Chandra said on 26 May 2005 that the agreement would effectively link the University of Fiji with international academic networks and would help ensure the quality of instruction.

University staff include Rajesh Chandra as Vice-Chancellor and Sarojini Pillay as Registrar. Academic staff include historian Brij Lal, retiring Labour Party parliamentarian Ganesh Chand, and Satendra Nandan, Professor of English Language and Literature and Foundation Head of the School of Humanities.

[edit] Future plans and goals

The Fiji Times quoted Chandra on 16 February 2006 that making higher education available to underprivileged communities would lead to equitable development, which would foster social and political stability in the long run.

Chandra announced plans on 6 March to establish a medical school, and said that if donors could be found, the university would set up another campus in the northern island of Vanua Levu. The medical school, to be called the Dr Umanand Prasad School of Medicine, is the brainchild of Dr. Umanand Prasad, a native of Labasa who has invested F$1 million for a medical school in his home country, after thirty years abroad.