Staff audit move at FNU welcome but it must be held periodically
The Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Rosy Akbar has made the right decision to order a staff audit at Fiji National University. Ms Akbar says the audit would determine the quality of staff that currently teach at the university.
The announcement has naturally made the students happy.
Ms Akbar made it while opening the Fiji National University Student Association (FNUSA) National Council Meeting at the FNU Nasinu campus yesterday.
She has asked the Vice Chancellor to carry out a staff audit in the next six months and report the result to her.
Obviously, she has received concerns about the standards and qualifications of lecturers and their quality of teaching.
The audit will reveal whether the lecturers are delivering the learning outcomes.
It would show not only whether the lecturers are suitably qualified but the method of teaching and the programme content meet the required standard.
The quality of graduates from a university also depends to a large extent on the standard of lecturers.
Of course, the students must play their part too by being conscientious in their studies.
If the lecturers are found to be below the acceptable standards then either they are released or told to attend retraining to bring them up to par.
Or will the university let them go and recruit replacements who can deliver?
FNU is funded by public funds and therefore is accountable for the way it spends the money. In fact they amount to millions of dollars.
That’s why Ms Akbar is adopting a hardline approach to this issue. She has to because at the end of the day, the buck stops with her as the line minister. She says it is important that the university gets the best people to teach students. That’s the bottom line. The university cannot and must not settle for less because the students’ academic future is at stake here.
It’s the university’s moral responsibility to ensure that the students are exposed to the best academic environment that is conducive to them achieving their best outcomes. The audit should be done periodically to ensure the standards are maintained.