X-Nico

4 unusual facts about University of the South Pacific


Fiji Chess Federation

In 1995, Prof David Jenkins of the University of the South Pacific was elected President in a very closely contested election.

Other chess clubs soon sprang up, like the Fiji School of Medicine Chess Club and the University of the South Pacific Chess Club.

Sarojini Pillay

In the second week of February 2006, Pillay, a former Registrar of the University of the South Pacific (USP), was appointed as the first Registrar of the newly founded University of Fiji.

Sione Sangster Saulala

He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, Politics and Business Management from the University of the South Pacific, and a Diploma in Education from the Tonga Teaching Training College.


K. O. Arvidson

Arvidson lectured at Flinders University of South Australia from 1967 to 1970 and in 1971 moved to the University of the South Pacific to develop a degree programme in English and Commonwealth literature.

Kula Eco Park

In 2007, (in cooperation with the Biological Sciences Division at the University of the South Pacific) the park commenced a captive breeding program for the endangered Fiji Ground Frog.

National language debate in Fiji

Similar calls came from Misiwini Qereqeretabua, the Director of the Institute of Fijian Language and Culture, and from Apolonia Tamata, a linguistics lecturer at Suva's University of the South Pacific, who both said that recognition of the Fijian language is essential to the nation's basic identity, as a unifying factor in Fiji's multicultural society.

Suliana Siwatibau

A native of Moturiki Island in the Lomaiviti archipelago, Siwatibau was married to the late academic leader and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific, Savenaca Siwatibau, from 1966 till his death in 2003.

Virginia Tilley

She is Associate Professor and director of the post-graduate program in governance studies at the University of the South Pacific in Suva.


see also