Do you have a passion to teach? Do you have a talent for music and art or would like to explore a career in sports science?
The College of Humanities and Education (CHE) offers a diverse range of programmes for careers in Teaching, Childcare, Music, Film and Television, Fitness Adviser, Graphic Design, Public Relations, Library Services, English Language Specialist and Social Policy adviser, to name a few.
CHE comprises three Schools: School of Communication, Language and Literature (SCLL), School of Arts and Humanities (SAH) and the School of Education (SOE). SCLL comprises the departments of Communication and Media, and Language and Literature. SAH comprises the departments of Creative Arts, Social Science and Ethics. SOE comprises the departments of Secondary and Sports Education, and Primary and Early Childhood Education. CHE plans to offer more of it programmes through the Blended (B) and Online (O) modes of delivery. Some of the notable mentions for CHE include:
The College has also developed new courses such as :
MOU Signing
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between FNU and the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation on 16 April, 2019. Students undertaking the Certificate IV in in Ageing and Community Support Care will receive placement at either of the Ministry’s three state homes.
Self-review of the Bachelor of Education and Associated Programmes
With the aim of improving teaching education, FNU embarked on a self-review of the Bachelor of Education and associated programmes in partnership with Academic Quality Agency (AQA) for New Zealand Universities in June, 2019. The self-review provided training to staff in New Zealand and consisted of evidence based self-review with a report submission in December, 2019.
New Building Development
Plans are underway for the development of a new Academy of Creative Arts in Nasinu Campus. After the 2016 Cyclone Winston, the programmes offered at Raiwai were displaced to various temporary locations. This placed a restriction on the intake for programmes in Music, Film, Graphic Arts and Design and Hairdressing. With the proposed plan, we are expecting the Centre to recapture the creative market.
Student Engagement
Ms. Kris Umlauft, Challenge Co-coordinator for Survivor Season 4 from “EndemolShine” Australia visited the School of Arts and Humanties to interview the Film & Television students for joining their production on attachment. 8 Students joined the production team for Survivor Germany in Kadavu, Love Island in Pacific Harbour and Survivor Sweden in Kadavu.
International Visitors
In June, the School of Communication, Language and Literature hosted a visit from the American novelist, Adam Johnson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the U.S. National Book Award, and a faculty member of Stanford University. In an hour long talk in Lautoka, which was also streamed to Nasinu, Professor Johnson spoke of the creative writing process, present-day directions in the novel, and the benefits of including creative writing in undergraduate education programs. The lecture concluded with a question and answer session.
A group of International students from the Pacific Theological College visited the Music Programme in Nasinu in August, and they were entertained with the music students with a few numbers. These group of student were happy to see some Musical instruments and one of the student from the group who was from Korea played a solo piano item.
Research Funding – No research funds were received in 2019.
Staff provided training in August for CEST staff on reading and writing skills. Foster collaboration and mentoring support for research amongst academic teaching staff.
A grant writing workshop for SCLL academics was undertaken. Laying the foundations for a SCLL Research Program. This was facilitated by Professor Eileen Honan and Associate Professor Sky Marsen. Participants from SCLL included Dr. Zakia Ali-Chand (ADR), Dr. Vasemaca Alifereti (HOS SCLL), Dr. Emit Snake-Beings, Romina Singh and Kenel Singh.
Development of blended learning
The University established the Centre for Flexible and eLearning with the goal to assist academic staff in the development of courses online. The College of Humanities and Education in its 2018 Strategic Planning workshop for 2019 had decided that it will have a number of its courses to be offered on blended mode. The 3 Schools (SOE, SCLL & SAH) had to identify the courses for blended offering and the course coordinators had to work with the CFEL staff on the design, selection of technologies and multimedia development of courses that were to be offered in Semester 2 2019. The following courses were trail blazers for CHE in as far as blended mode offering is concerned:
This is in fact a major milestone for the College and University, providing access to higher education through 4G network in the 21st century.
Professional development
A Leadership workshop was organised in March 2019 for the Heads of School, Heads of Department, Associate Deans and key support staff. The leadership workshop focused on effective management of the College and its constituent units, enhancing professional bonding skills among all the Heads and their working relationship with the Dean’s Office and quality delivery of all CHE programmes through efficient management and financial prudence.
Staff currently undertaking Masters and PhD at FNU were taken through a second research writing retreat. The second phase was held in July, 2019 and included guest lecturers from the University of England (Dr. Jennifer Charteris) and University of Queensland (Associate Professor Elizabeth Mackinlay).
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), in collaboration with Wawasan Open University, organized a 3-day workshop on leadership skills for mid-career professional women from 26 – 28 April 2019 in Penang, Malaysia. This was attended by Dr Zakia Ali-Chand, Associate Dean Research in the College. The focus of the training programme was an intensive and interactive 3-day workshop which included short lectures by inspirational leaders, group discussions and activities, mentoring sessions, project work and presentations. All the activities were designed to:
The workshop also looked into the scope of COL’s partnership with the institutions to strengthen women’s leadership and gender mainstreaming.
About 30 women academics from African, Asian, Pacific and Caribbean countries participated in the workshop. The group photo above shows participants and the facilitators.