Background of Higher Education in the South Pacific Region
This article offers some background on a current issue in Pacific regionalism with reference to the problems of the University of the South Pacific (USP). The USP was established in 1968 for the twelve English speaking Pacific Island states located south of the equator (Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Cook Islands), and later included the northern Pacific Marshall Islands, (Crocombe M, 1988: 29). Its establishment was coordinated and funded by the joint efforts of the United Nations, Australian, British and New Zealand governments (Aikman, 1988 p. 35-38). Fiji was chosen as its location when New Zealand offered suitable premises at the former New Zealand air base at Laucala Bay in Suva. The rationale for its establishment was to reduce the dependence of the new states on expatriate teachers and administrators and to build a spirit of Pacific Island regional identity.
When USP was established, decolonisation was underway in the Pacific. The decolonisation of the Pacific Island states began in 1962 with Samoa the first to achieve independence. This was followed by Nauru (1968), Fiji (1970), Tonga (1970), Papua New Guinea (1975) and, Solomon Islands (1978), Tuvalu (1978), Kiribati (1979), the Federated States of Micronesia (1986), Marshall Islands (1986) and Palau (1994). The other Pacific Island states were granted self-governance but still remained in ‘free association’ relations with the former administrative powers such as that of the Cook Islands and Niue with New Zealand. New Caledonia, Tahiti, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia are overseas territories of France, while American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and Guam remain territories of the United States of America. Tokelau is a dependent territory of New Zealand.
