FNU’s College of Humanities and Education staff members with Chief Guest Professor Steven Ratuva at the FNU campus in Nasinu.

The Fiji National University’s (FNU) College of Humanities and Education (CHE) hosted renowned academic distinguished Professor Steven Ratuva at a Talanoa Session with the staff and students at the University.

Professor Ratuva is an award-winning political sociologist and a global interdisciplinary scholar. He is also the Director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury.

He has worked in several universities in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, and also as a Fulbright Senior Fellow at the University of California (LA), Duke University and Georgetown University.

The discussion centred around the need for universities to move towards an inter-disciplinary studies direction, the transformation of universities towards corporatisation, designing good research to create positive impacts and the importance of research publications to have an impact on the community and also contribute to the professional development of academics at FNU.

“We had a good Talanoa Session with the academics, and there is a lot of potential here (FNU), so it will be good to work together with them for their academic development in terms of research and other professional engagement. It will be good for the two universities to collaborate and become academic partners in the future,” Prof Ratuva said.

“In terms of research, it will be good to encourage, build up, and expand (research) at FNU, where some members are doing more research than others. We need to build the research culture and the research base amongst the staff members.

Professor Steven Ratuva.

“Research and teaching should go hand in hand and, in fact, the research should feed straight into teaching just to make sure that what the students are being taught is based on new cutting-edge materials.”

In the FNU 2021-2026 Strategic Plan, the University is committed to work on the interdisciplinary themes, aligned to national priorities and with international relevance, where FNU can develop strength and depth in research in climate change adaptation, e-commerce, low-input agriculture, sustainable and eco-tourism, noncommunicable diseases, artificial intelligence, and inclusive education.

The University is also engaged in the developing the research capacity through training and mentorship programmes for research supervisors and early career researchers. The University has also invested in the facilities, infrastructure, and research culture.

Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies and Research at FNU’s College of Humanities and Education, Professor Nii-K Plange, said the session was very educational.

“The discussion was in line with some of the critical academic issues which we have been trying to address at the College of Humanities and Education, especially the importance of interdisciplinary academic work that will move us away from focusing on or specialising in one area only.”

“We are trying to move to the practice of knowledge creation and imparting learning and teaching situations that is interdisciplinary so that the students will have a broader understanding of society. ”

“In terms of publications, our academics are publishing in journals which have an impact on the people and the development around us. This is what is called impact research publication and the impact can be demonstrated in its influence some of the development issues we are dealing with in the communities.

FNU aims to be the premier national University providing relevant higher education, technical and vocational education and training, and research and development in Fiji.