A total of 93 students have graduated with certificates, diplomas and degrees from the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Alafua Campus in Samoa.
Fifty four per cent of those who graduated were women.
Sixty nine per cent of the students graduated with Undergraduate degrees, six per cent with Professional Diplomas and another six per cent with Postgraduate Diplomas.
Five per cent of the students graduated with Masters degrees and thirteen per cent from Pacific Technical and Further Education (Pacific TAFE) Programmes.
A highlight of the ceremony was the awarding of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) to Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa.
In his address, Professor Rajesh Chandra, Vice-Chancellor and President said that this honour is richly deserved by Mata’afa, because of her outstanding service and achievements.
“As someone who has had the privilege of working closely with you both as Pro-Chancellor and also as Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, I am delighted that we are honouring you in this manner today during our 50th Anniversary year,” Professor Chandra said.
Professor Chandra also congratulated the other graduates for their fine achievement and wished them well for their future endeavours.
In addition, he highlighted that USP has produced around 1,506 Samoan alumni from 1968 to 2018, which is 3.2% of all the alumni that USP has and at the same time, 2,001 qualifications have been awarded to Samoan students since 1968.
Professor Chandra thanked the Government and people of Samoa for their very strong contributions to the development of USP ever since its establishment in 1968.
In addition to providing Chancellors and Pro-Chancellors, including the first Pro-Chancellor of the University, Professor Chandra acknowledged that Samoa has also provided a Vice-Chancellor, Afionga Esekia Solofa under whom Professor Chandra was privileged to serve as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
“So Samoa has been a large part of the University’s success that we celebrate during our 50th Anniversary,” he said.
Speaking about the Alafua Campus achievements, he highlighted that ten staff of the School of Agriculture and Food Technology (SAFT) published thirty two research and other papers in 2018.
There were six papers in the area of Crops, eight in the area of Soil, five in the area of Livestock, two in the area of Agribusiness and five publications were in Books or Newsletters.
Professor Chandra also said that fifty teachers who are currently undertaking the second Science Teachers Accelerated Programme (STAP) are doing their 300 level courses and are earmarked to complete their required courses by semester 2, 2019.
“STAP has been one of the major programme delivery successes of the University, pioneered by Associate Professor Bibhya Sharma and his team, and marked by a very strong partnership between regional Governments and the University,” he remarked.
The campus has also seen record Undergraduate and Postgraduate enrolments in the Agriculture Programme in recent years.
In 2018 there are four PhD students in Agriculture, 12 students in Master of Agriculture and 27 students in Postgraduate Diploma in Agriculture.
Photo supplied. Caption: USP Chancellor, Taneti Maamau, President of the Republic of Kiribati presents Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, Deputy Prime Minister of Samoa with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt).