STUDENTS on Rotuma lack the information needed to make informed choices about their career paths.
This was the perception from Public Service Commission's senior scholarship officer Jean Fong at a recent awareness program at the Government Station in Ahau, Rotuma last week.
During a session with interested students from Rotuma High School, Ms Fong gave a detailed explanation about the scholarship application process among other topics.
"A lot of students from the maritime zone apply for scholarships to further their studies at tertiary institutions on the mainland," she told the students.
"When they move to Suva, most find being in the city a shock and indulge in things like drinking, grogging or pregnancy.
"They don't attend classes and their grades fail resulting in the termination of their scholarships.
"These are some issues that students from outside Suva need to prepare themselves for because it's completely different from Rotuma.
"Teachers and lecturers in tertiary institutions will not hold sticks and monitor your work like in primary and high schools.
"You will need to discipline to maintain a good pass rate."
When scholarships are terminated, Ms Fong said the onus of repayment would fall on the guarantors.
This would sometimes fall in the thousands.
"It's not fair on your guarantors to pay back more than $20,000 so you need to be serious and focussed whenever you're under a scholarship bond," she said.
Ms Fong said she was surprised that many students were not aware of career choices and subjects to study at tertiary institutions in Fiji.
She said this was an area she would look into to provide students on the island the same study opportunity as their peers on the mainland.