Minister of Finance professor Biman Prasad says all coalition partners in Government agree to a closer relationship with the University of the South Pacific (USP).
He said Government would restore confidence in USP and respect the governance structure of the institution. Prof Biman Prasad said that’s a commitment all coalition partners in Government had made.
He said Fiji would now be “a real partner with the University of the South Pacific”.
“We’re going to restore that confidence, we’re going to respect the governance structure of the university.
“This means that when the university council makes a decision, we as members in that council will respect that decision, unlike the previous government and their reps, who disregarded because they didn’t win in the council.
“Things didn’t go in their favour, they tried to hold the grant of the university through some bogus claim that there should be more investigation.
“None of that was true, none of that was reasonable.”
He said the Prime Minister had already lifted the ban on Professor Pal Ahluwalia.
“As you know, the Prime Minister has already lifted the ban on Professor Pal Ahluwalia who was deported in the middle of the night.
“That was a sad thing for this country; it was an attack on democracy; it was an attack on academic freedom.
“So we are very pleased that our Government has been able to remove that and we look forward to a very co-operative relationship with the University of the South Pacific and indeed with all other universities in the country because we believe that empowering the universities, giving them academic freedom, giving them autonomy is good for our students, good for our staff, good for the country.”
Prof Prasad said the Government would work closely with tertiary institutions in the country.
“This Government is going to work closely with the universities and other tertiary institutions to make sure that we empower them, we use resources at those universities to help government to work in policy areas, analyse data.
“As a Government, we are going to be very, very liberal with the academic community in this country because we want them to know that this is a government which is going to be open, which is going to help them do research because we will not be afraid of critical research being done by academics, whether they are in Fiji or from outside.
“They will have access to data wherever possible. They will have access to the processes and the support to do research in critical areas.
“That will be very, very important for the Government.”
