Dear Editor,

University vice-chancellors and presidents are remembered every now and then for their legacies. This applies to the nine VCs that have led USP over its 57 years of existence. USP has been a reputable regional institution.

The regional university’s 25th and 50th-anniversary celebration books, Garland of Achievement (USP, 1993) and A University for the Pacific, 50 Years of USP (USP Press, 2018), as well as Stewart Firth and Vijay Naidu (eds) Understanding Oceania (ANU Press, 2019), provide snippets of the accomplishments of its former Vice Chancellors.

Dr Colin Aikman, former Dean of Law at the Victoria University of Wellington is fondly remembered as the first USP, VC who set the regional university’s strong foundation for future growth. Dr James Maraj is remembered for his charismatic leadership and the establishment of several research and training institutes. Two regional VCs, Mr Esekia Solofa, and Mr Savenaca Siwatibau are remembered for their respective parts in consolidating USP during difficult times. Mr Siwatibau’s financial management ensured that the university had large reserves until his premature death.

Professor Rajesh Chandra’s legacy although marred in the last 3 years of his 10-year tenure includes rescuing the university from financial insolvency with the able assistance of Professor Biman Prasad and Dr Esther Williams in the first year of his appointment. He can be credited with overseeing the completion of the largest building complex on the Laucala Campus, the Japan-Pacific ITC complex. He also innovatively led USP’s distant and flexible learning programme, keeping abreast with the IT revolution and satellite communication interlinking the university’s 12 main campuses, support for the Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture, and establishment of the USP Press. The strong distant mode of delivery of courses via Moodle helped the university in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic when face-to-face classes ceased.

In contrast to the generally positive contributions of nearly all former Vice Chancellors of USP, the current Vice Chancellor and President Professor Pal Ahluwalia’s tenure has been marked by unprecedented controversies which have impacted negatively on the regional institution.  Although he has given himself credit for USP’s Times Higher Education ranking, it was the former VCP Chandra and his deputies Professor Paddy Nunn, Professor John Bethel, and Professor Derrick Armstrong who had done the necessary leg work.

Professor Ahluwalia is most likely to be remembered for his rather cruel and unnecessary ‘Gestapo-like deportation’ by the Bainimarama and Khaiyum government in 2021. This action was unprecedented. Staff and students rightly rallied behind their Vice Chancellor. They felt that this was no way to treat the head of a regional institution owned by 12 Pacific member countries.

Unprecedently too, the police were deployed on Laucala Campus to intimidate staff and students on the pretext of preventing contact during the protest rallies. This was during the time of COVID. The President of the Association of USP Staff (AUSPS), Ms Elizabeth Fong-Reade, and the General Secretary of the USP Staff Union (USPSU) Mr Ilima Finiasi were summoned by the police for questioning.

However, since mid-2023 both USP staff unions and many students are no longer supportive of Professor Pal Ahluwalia for several reasons.

He has not responded effectively to fill vacancies at the university which in 2023 had 400 vacant positions. He has trampled on the principle of regionalism which commits the university to appoint, enable, and retain regional staff.

He vengefully terminated the employment of Dr Tamara Osborne-Naikatini in 2024 because she shared information with Island Business regarding the flawed process that led to the offer of a new contract to him.  She had provided sterling service for 12 years as a lecturer in Biology but she spoke as the President of AUSPS to Island Business. (The fact that Dr Osborne-Naikatini had remained a lecturer after so many years of service reflects on USP’s unsatisfactory promotion policy, and particularly its pathetic gender equality policy).

The university’s publication arm, the USP Press is dead. Several postgraduate programmes like Governance and Development Studies have been discontinued through non-recruitment of staff. The flagship Oceania Centre’s future is uncertain. The university’s capacity to supervise masters and PhD thesis students has significantly diminished.

 The institution continues to be owed more than F$60 million by the Fiji government, which under the FijiFirst party had stopped its annual grant to the university. In 2022, that regime owed FJ$100 million. The Rabuka-led Coalition government began paying back this debt in instalments as well as resumed payment for the annual grant.

At the last USP Council meeting (its 98th) in Rarotonga, Professor Ahluwalia offered to resign on his terms, presumably if he is paid for the remainder of his contract. The council appointed a committee to negotiate the payout for the termination of his contract.

The two USP staff unions are hoping for an early end of Professor Ahluwalia’s employment so that the regional university can creatively plan for a better future.

Professor Vijay Naidu