More students graduate from USP’s Emalus Campus

One hundred and ninety two students from nine countries have graduated from The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Emalus Campus in Vanuatu.

Fiji’s President and USP Chancellor, Jioji Konusi Konrote, conferred the Degrees and awarded the Diplomas and Certificates to the graduating students during the ceremony last Friday.

Konrote congratulated the graduating students and highlighted that the qualifications received will be a major game changer for the graduates and gives them every opportunity to excel in life and do well for their families, communities and country.

“I am particularly pleased and honoured to personally officiate at your graduation ceremony. I take this role very seriously because I have every confidence that many of you, the graduating students, can go on to become the future leaders of your beloved nation. All of you can lead at the local, national or even at the international levels,” he said.

About 73% of the graduates were from Vanuatu, and 27% were from Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu.

“This reflects the strong regional role that the Emalus Campus and Vanuatu play regionally,” said Professor Rajesh Chandra, Vice-Chancellor and President.

The number of students graduating from Emalus Campus has seen an increase by 25% compared to last year and out of the total number of graduates, 52% of them are females.

Twelve per cent of the students graduated with Postgraduate qualifications which is an increase of 3% when compared to 2016.

The day also marked the graduation of the first cohort of francophone teachers who graduated with “Certificat post-Licence en Sciences de l’éducation”.

Professor Chandra congratulated the graduates and said that the journey to graduation is a wonderful one and the celebration of the journey that ends on graduation day is that of one of the greatest chapters in their life.