UniFiji Announces Resumption Date, Appoints Acting Vice Chancellor

The University of Fiji has announced that it will re-open from April 28, 2020. However, students will resume classes from Monday, May 4, 2020.

The period of a week from April 28 until May 4 will allow lecturers time to prepare for the new teaching and learning modalities in view of the COVID19 crisis and public health compulsory restrictions.

Speaking on behalf of the University of Fiji Council, the Chairperson of Council, Pro-Chancellor Pandit Kamlesh Arya said that a Senior Management Group meeting held at the University on Saturday 25th April decided that the best way forward for optimum teaching and learning was to become innovative with the University’s delivery models.

The University would ensure that all lecturers, under the supervision of their respective Deans, would amend their teaching and learning methodologies and schedules to accommodate either a complete on-line transfer of lectures, or a blended mode with limited face to face contact for relevant courses strictly based on government’s public health restrictions, Pandit Arya said.

The learning guidelines for students will be determined by each Dean and implemented across the University by the Registrar, Ms Karishma Mani, and the Executive Director Finance, Mr Ravineet Sami.

This will be a challenge for our staff and students alike because the University of Fiji has prided itself on its learning modes due to the special nature of the origin and rationale of the University said Pandit Arya. Such pedagogy had been successful through right-sizing of classes and the personal attention paid to each student in the lecture rooms.

However, Pandit Arya said that the University Deans now also recognised the opportunity presented by the otherwise ill-effects of the coronavirus pandemic to ensure that all students would be able to fully resume their learning in accordance with the credit point requirements of the Fiji Higher Education Commission and the Ministry of Education. Lecturers, under the guidance of their Deans, were investigating and implementing creative methods of teaching so that their students would not be disadvantaged in the new normal, he said.

The University will resume teaching under the new guidelines on Monday 4th May. Students were being asked to contact their lecturers to receive further information regarding their programmes.

The University would also like to announce the appointment of Professor Shaista Shameem as the Acting Vice Chancellor with immediate effect.

Vice Chancellor Shaista Shameem.

Professor Shameem has been the Dean of the Justice Devendra Pathik School of Law since 2016.