Emalus Campus to welcome the In-country Science Programme

The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Faculty of Science, Technology & Environment (FSTE) will officially launch the Vanuatu in-country Science Programme (VISP) on 19 June at Emalus Campus in Vanuatu.

The event will mark a partnership between the University and the Government of Vanuatu through the Ministry of Education and Training in delivering full science programmes to students at Emalus Campus from 9 July.

VISP will provide students at Emalus Campus the opportunity to take science programmes that in the past would only be offered at Laucala Campus in Fiji. Some students even travel to Universities beyond our region to study science.

The programme will offer a Bachelor of Science degree with Biology & Chemistry, Biology & Information Systems, Mathematics & Information systems, Mathematics & Chemistry and Mathematics & Physics majors. The programme will also be nourished with various ICT tools and face-to-face support from FSTE to assist students throughout their academic journey.

In April a team from Laucala Campus led by FSTE’s Associate Dean of Learning & Teaching, Dr Bibhya Sharma with the assistance of Emalus Campus Director Mr Ruben Mackward Bakeo and the Science Coordinator Dr Krishna Kotra, conducted school and community visits to promote the programme.

The widespread interest shown during the one week visit resulted in the team receiving over 120 applications from teachers, continuing students and freshmen from all over the country. This astounding outcome is further supported by the Government of Vanuatu in which the government has pledged a number of scholarships for its science teachers who will be joining the science programme.

These scholarships will particularly benefit in-service teachers’ currently teaching science and are looking to upgrade their qualifications from a Certificate or Diploma to a Bachelor of Science from USP. This will be possible through the Science Teachers Accelerated Programme (STAP), which is an affiliated programme of VISP.

The Faculty hopes that this initiative will catapult the number of science graduates in Vanuatu that will be capable of assuming responsibility in industry, commerce, government institutes and education.

The launch of VISP will mark a historic event for USP as it looks to deliver the first ever full science programme to Vanuatu. Students will be expected to attend the Preparation for Higher Education Workshop from the 25th June – 6th July.