‘Look at COVID-19 challenges from positively’

We must look at COVID in a positive sense, says the University of Fiji ProChancellor, Kamlesh Arya. Mr Arya made this comment in a press conference after the highlevel roundtable conference at the university’s Saweni Campus in Lautoka on Friday.

He said we must look at COVID-19 positively because it has allowed us to tackle huge challenges.

“All I said is that people are saying COVID-19 is an element of setbacks, I don’t believe in that,” he said.

“We must look at COVID in a positive sense that it has provided us huge challenges to move life forward. In totality, COVID is teaching us a lesson, putting a challenge to us that when there is an adverse situation you need to do something to overcome it.”

He said the university was confident in ensuring that students who graduate were able to go out and support themselves.

“We know that our students have suffered, we know that our school education system has suffered, we will continue to do what we can to ensure that those who come here at the end of their three or four year study tenures are able to go back and fend for themselves,” he said.

Providing rounded education

The University of Fiji is attempting to provide people with a rounded education so that they’re able to survive in the current climate. Professor Shameem made this comment after raising concerns regarding students who wouldn’t make the cut to secure a scholarship or loan under the Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Board (TSLB). “With TSLB having fewer awards given out now, our concern is what is going to happen to the students coming out of high school who cannot apply or make the cut, what is going to happen to them?” she said. “Has anybody thought about all these students who are going to be left alone in the economy, I think we have to seriously think about those social issues, not just the economy issues?”

She said because of this, the University of Fiji was already allowing their students and graduates to be multiskilled.

“It seems like there’s a lot of attention to be paid into agriculture and farming because the sentiment was even if the industry collapses as we know tourism has collapsed, that people are able to feed their families because they have another skill,” she said.

“The second one was that clearly, we need an interdisciplinary kind of education in higher education so going into terms of concise programmes to the exclusion of all the others is not really the answer to the world’s problem anymore.” Professor Shameem said with this, the university had introduced two programmes, the Medical Health Science Programme and the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Programme.

“We have already decided that we are going to multiskill our graduates and our students so that if one industry fails then they can go and do something else,” she added.