The Fiji National University (FNU) has formalised and strengthened its partnership with the University of Hertfordshire following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) this week.
Professor John Senior, Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Hertfordshire, visited FNU and delivered a talk on research priority areas and the Doctoral College at the University of Hertfordshire. This was followed by the signing of a MOU between the two universities.
Speaking at the signing, FNU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Healey said the University was excited to be partnering with a fellow institution to advance and strengthen the University’s work in the field of research. Professor Healey further highlighted the importance of strengthening international relations with established institutions that have the ability to empower and nourish development.
“When you’re benchmarking, it’s not about looking at who is the best in the world and trying to copy what they do. It’s about who is on the same journey we are, but further advanced,” Professor Healey said.
“I think universities like Hertfordshire have been on the journey that we’re on now. They are the pathbreakers, and we saw that they built a really strong ecosystem to support PhD students and they have very good regulations and procedures which they willingly helped us with.”
“We want partnerships with universities that are on that journey but way ahead of us and can help and guide us.”
This partnership was facilitated by FNU’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor Mohini Singh who visited University of Hertfordshire early last year.
She initiated this MOU for a closer working relationship with the University of Hertfordshire for collaborative research, staff and student exchange and a joint PhD sometime in the future.
Professor Healey added the digital age also removed barriers such as geographical locations and allowed for more collaboration between organisations.
“In this digital age, there is no distance anymore. It’s what you can now do, and it doesn’t matter where you are, you can work anywhere at any time,” Professor Healey said.
“And now that we have social media sites for academia, you can connect to people in a way that you couldn’t in the past. There are lots of ways to collaborate virtually. If you get enough virtual collaboration, it is worthwhile spending money to go and visit (the other collaborator).”
University of Hertfordshire Pro Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor John Senior, echoed similar sentiments and said the University researched areas that would be of interest and benefit to FNU.
“We started out much like FNU and now have about 650 research students at our dozen research centres at the university,” Professor Senior said.
“Through this MOU, we are excited to seek opportunities for the exchange of students or staff and collaborate on joint research projects and other activities after being agreed upon by both institutions.”
“Our research strategy is to excel in collaborative, multidisciplinary research that addresses social, economic, cultural, scientific and environmental challenges.”
“Research at our university is organised into the themes of food, global economy, health and wellbeing, heritage, cultures and communities, information and security and space. We look forward to working with FNU in some or most of these areas.”
The objectives of the MOU are to;
Professor Singh highlighted that the MOU came at an opportune time and would benefit both the staff and students of FNU.
Professor Singh has been working with the University of Hertfordshire for almost a year now benchmarking FNU’s newly developed PhD and Masters by Research programmes with a well-established university in the UK to ensure the programs are of international standards.
FNU Vice-Chancellor Prof Nigel Healey and University of Hertfordshire Pro VC Research Prof John Senior during the MOU signing