ONE year on since taking up the role as the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) Vice Chancellor (VC) Professor Transform Aqorau reflects on his first year in office.

The SINU Media and Public Relation Office recently conducted an exclusive interview with Professor Aqorau and will be releasing a series of stories from the interview. 

This is the first story from the reflection interview. In this edition, Professor Aqorau will talk us through why he decided to join SINU and what are some of the areas of concern that he wants to see SINU improved on moving forward. Also in this edition, Professor Aqorau will talk about the importance of good governance and some of the key challenges SINU faced as the leading learning institution in the country.

In our next edition, Professor Aqorau will be talking about corruption at SINU and why it is important for SINU to operate under a corrupt free environment.

In the meantime, welcome to our first series of question and answer.

Question: You have been serving in the region for a good number of years and just this year you decided to come home and took up the role as the SINU Vice Chancellor. What was the motivating factor behind your decision to finally come home and lead SINU? 

Let me start by saying this, I’ve been working outside of the country for a long period of time, and in actual fact, when I was offered the position of VC at SINU, I was also offered a position to go back and work overseas, so I was torn between my head and my heart.

In my head, I was torn between making more money but in my heart. I thought that this was perhaps the last time I would ever come back and serve my country and the people of Solomon Islands.

So, I thought about it and said I will go with my heart because probably even if I come back from another overseas trip, I wouldn’t be able to be given the opportunity to serve the country, and so by way of the feeling that I have, I decided to serve the country and the people.

It was only when I signed the contract, I realized what such a huge opportunity this is to help the country and give back to the country. So, I’m giving nothing but my best because I know that I’m serving the people of Solomon Islands and I want to serve them to the best of my ability.

I spent most of the time building institutions in the region setting up the PNA Vessel Day Scheme that has left such a huge legacy for the Pacific and this is the only time I have in my life I know maybe before I end up going back to the village where I can give back to the country through SINU.

So, my feeling to be honest with you is one of the great pride, but also one of humility and I think the privilege is mine to be able to give to the young people, to the parents of those who entrusted their children to come to the university hopping for a better future for themselves and for their children.

So, if I can do something that would make a small difference in the lives of parents and people in the rural areas who have great hopes for their children then that’s the very least that I can do.

Not only that, let me just say that I have a wonderful privilege of an education and I work very hard for the education that I have through struggles. I really struggled a lot, my father died when I was a small kid, we did not have a lot of resources, although I was adopted, but like many families in the country, we really struggle and I can tell you what it really means to only have shared a packet of sugar, shared rice with my grandparents and not having any money at all. But the education that I got has taught me that those of us who have had the privilege of university education we have the responsibility to give back to the country.

Not just to give back, but to give back the best because we know better to those that don’t have the privilege that we have had and that is why I feel also that with my education, this is my way of giving back to the people of the country through the hard work that they have given me.

Without the support that people gave for me to be able to initially go out and get my first degree, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So, I see this as a huge humbling honour for me to lead an institution that for me is also very important as part of building up our national identity in our sense of Solomon Islanderness and the nation building.

So, there are many different dimensions to the great honour and privilege that I feel about serving the country through being the VC of the university.

To be honest with you, I had reservation about applying for the job because you know I’m not an academic by training, I did not come through the university process, I’m actually a lawyer by profession but more specialist in fisheries.

I actually spent most of my life in that field, but it’s the power of innovation and the power of getting new ideas and freshness of ideas. Because of the experience that I had working in international fisheries where it’s about developing new ideas and developing systems to manage and technologies is right at the forefront of this things. Those are the things that I’m applying. It’s my knowledge of the way in which we should manage fisheries sustainably that I’m trying to instil those disciplines into the way which you manage an institution.

Question: When you took office in January this year, what are some of the areas of concern that you want to see SINU improve on moving forward?

According to my observation, there are three key areas of concern, they are; industrial relation issues, governance issues, and a need for SINU programs’ accreditation.

So, I was very well aware of the legacy of this institution that I was inheriting something that has in this very short time very tenacious history of industrial dispute students uprising against two of our Vice Chancellors. I came in to the university at the time when there were all these things that were happening in terms of the industrial relations within the institution.  So, I knew and that was part of my reluctance to actually came to the university because you know I’m going to be inheriting a challenge and I said that I’d been a CEO for nine years, three at the FFA as the Deputy Director, six years at the party Nauru agreement setting something up.

I felt nine years being a CEO is enough, so I came into this position a bit reluctant knowing very well, very well aware of the legacy of the problem.

But I told myself, I said I’m not going to come and look back, I’m going to look to the future and that is what I’ve mainly focused on is to try to fix some of the governance issues.  I also told myself that there were three key things we would do; one is governance, accreditation of our programs so that we can get what I called global employability skill for our young men and women to be able to go out and work anywhere in the world because we are global citizens of the world.

We might hold Solomon Islands passport but we belong to the world and therefore my desire is to try and develop good programs to incentivise the qualification that our students here get they can be recognized this in Australia or New Zealand and therefore if they can be recognized in Australia and New Zealand they can be recognized anywhere in the world.

So those three things I focused my mind on the future.

Just to answer your question, there were many challenges, industrial issues that were happening, there was a strike against the former VC.

Two of our VCs were removed, so I was very conscious about and scared too, so I did not want to come in and change anything, I just come in and learn, observe, familiarize myself, and get to know people in this institution. So that is basically what I’d try to do this year, but not look back, but to look to the future.

Question: Has SINU under your leadership taken any practical steps to try to improve those areas of concern?

Yes, unfortunately you know we’ve had some terrible governance issues on campus and I think SINU as you know SINU also suffered from the disease that is affecting the country.

We all know the level of corruption and corrosion in the system and the way people have abused their positions to benefit themselves, which is really unfortunate. So, I had to confront those, but I told the staff on the first day on my taking office on first of January that I have no tolerance for corruption and corrosion especially when it comes to money. Therefore, unfortunately, before I tell you probably all know about the very well-publicized investigation that was done known as the workman ink scandal involving orders for printing materials. Excessive orders that were never delivered resulted in unfortunately termination of some key staff members of the university.

It is truly unfortunate because when it happens in an institution like SINU which is producing the next generation of thought leaders. We should know better. I mean in actual fact, we should be setting an example for the rest of the country and I made it a commitment that if everywhere else is not good, SINU must be good because we are teaching the next generation of thought leaders to become good citizens and responsible citizens.

So, it pained me a lot when I had to take the action to initially suspend and then finally terminate the very senior people. Unfortunately, I have to admit also that we have continue to take action against a number of other staff as well who hold important senior positions in the university.  We have to suspend them because of fraudulent activities following quite comprehensive and intensive investigation.

It is unfortunate because you know for me at the end of the day, we are supposed to be custodians of the people. When I say people, I often think very much of the rural family members who struggle to put their children to school.

You know what, I think of myself because I struggle a lot and my mother struggle a lot to put me through education for me to be able to complete my high school.

So, when I see the hard-earned money that our rural people struggle to put their kids to the university being abused and misused, I have no tolerance for that at all.

We also have no excuses at all to be doing what we are doing because these are educated people who are doing this. These are university graduates who are doing this and so they absolutely have no excuse.

Those of us as I said who have had the privilege of a university education hold a higher standard of responsibility to the country and to the people because we should know better and therefore, we should be more accountable and be more responsible.

So yeah, just to answer your question, it is sad actually and those are some of the key challenges. Coming into an institution, the key is governance. The key to all of that is to fix the governance and by good governance, we have a good system in place and that is why the system is detecting the violation.

So, I’m not saying that we don’t have system. I’m very confident in the system that we have. What I’m saying is that we can actually improve those systems we have and technology is going to be able to fix and help some of the human areas that we find.

 So, I’m really keen as part of the response to the question that you asked about what are the challenges, is to develop systems and try and find the investment to invest in information management system of our finance, our HR and student management. A wholly integrated system where the whole process is just digitized and reduces our paper work and then reduces the ability to be corrupt.

Let me just say that corruption is everywhere, human nature as it is, is a weak being and temptation is very strong.

So, when people are confronted with the opportunity to make some money, they will do that and this is rife in the country. I mean it’s happening in the government ministries as we all know, in the villages through the logging process, the level of corrosion in the country is really bad and that is why I would like SINU to be an oasis in this country.

Let us set out in the way we operate with honesty, diligent, the system we have here is able to eliminate corruption.

Because once we work well, there is going to be a lot more money available, lot more resources that you can then help to improve welfare and wellbeing of staff that is why I believe that when you do the right thing we will also benefit as well.

Question: Generally, what are some of the challenges that SINU faced with this year?

Well, I think there are lot of challenges that we faced, challenges that the students faced is in terms of resources that they have. I do feel very much for the students with their struggles with course materials, shortage of computers and facilities where they can do studies is limited.

So, I do really feel sorry for the students because they pay and therefore, we would really love to see us have a beautiful student centre. Not only that, but we also don’t really have a proper bookshop for the students and they struggle with printing for example. Internet access for them is limited, so these things compound the problems that they faced in terms of their studies.

But I must admit that I do have a great admiration for our students, I see the commitment that they have. I see parents coming to the university to talk about their students’ concerns and issues even in the faculties and over grades for example. To me, it reflects the interests in the investments that parents have made in their children.

So, students faced these challenges off course, the fees are bit high, you know there is one thing I would like to address by making it more accessible and we will be reviewing the fees and will be reviewing the way which the academic units are being structured so that all are part of a comprehensive review. But for me is to look at reducing fees so that we get more students to come in.

Students are faced with accommodation issues, yet the dormitories are empty and so I’d like to be able to ensure accommodation on campus is affordable for students to come on campus because this is where we want them to stay. Stay far from crowded home they have to live in so that they don’t have to pay for bus fares and taxi and they come and have a university on campus life.

Another challenge that I see for students too is that there is not much of a campus life for students. We don’t have sports teams, there are no athletes and athletics competition. We have to develop those things to make campus life interesting for students. Campus life is what makes the students experience university life and reflect on their time at university, which is the most enjoyable time. Remember they mostly young and energetic and this is the best time to have real experience.

Let me talk about SINU staff before I talk about the other areas. With the staff welfare issues, I recognize that before I came. The staff union was suspended and so there is no avenue for university staff to be able to discuss their conditions.

I’d love to be able to do more for SINU staff in terms to preparing them and giving them more marketable skills, making a lot more scholarships available, training and exposure more available for the staff, improve their housing condition as well, and maybe setting up a medical insurance and life insurance for staff. These are welfare issues that we must address and make available for staff, because staff do play a significant role in progress of this university.

If we don’t look after the staff and we don’t treat the staff well, then the teaching will go down, the level of administrative support will also go down.

So, it is critical that we should look after our staff well so that they will continue to perform to the expectation of the university.

Let me talk about other challenges, we are challenged by the programs that we have as they need to be reviewed. Many of our programs on campus that we teaching have not been reviewed for a long time, therefore we need to have all the programs reviewed so that we know and continue to ensure that they are relevant and they meet and fit for purpose and meet the market demand. But more importantly, the programs need to be reviewed to ensuring that when we do graduate students, they do have actually have the skills to go out and perform in the field. 

So, there are challenges of experienced staff leaving the university. Experience in teaching is very important. There are many who came out from universities to teach but maybe ongoing professional teaching development is important for them.

Another challenge is to do with course materials for the programs as most of the programs that we have don’t have proper course materials. We can’t run and manage an institution with that.  

Plus, one of our biggest challenges off course is that the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) is not paying its development budget to SINU. We rely on government for our development and also for our recurrent expenditure and so when government has cash flow problems, it directly affects the university and therefore that is a huge challenge.

When I came in, there is a significant debt that was owed to the university by Members of Parliament (MPs), by private sponsored students, a huge debt. Thankfully, we’ve been able to reduce the debt. The good news is that we have been able to reduce the debt and I’m thankful to the MPs and those who have been able to show the commitment that they had. I do hope the government invests its money in the university if it wants a university that is worth the paper given to the students.

But we can complement, for me I’m not too worried about that but I think that there is a huge assert, huge opportunity, university can leverage its asserts, there are dormitories that are empty, and we have a business arm here that should be making money for the university. These are additional and the university has the potential to generate additional revenue from its asserts from some of the commercial endeavours and initiatives that we have here. Nonetheless, the government still has to commit and actually meet its obligation.

You don’t set up a university and then don’t fund it. It’s like a hospital, if you don’t fund the hospital then things will go bad. There is life and death, you have to fund the university.

It’s not a community organization, it’s a national organization. So those are some of the challenges that I’m observing in terms of infrastructure growth. Off course, we got some squatters living on university land, particularly at Panatina, there is little bit here at Kukum. So that is a challenge.

For the safety and security of the students and the staff, there must be respect for the university premises. It will be good to have our premises secured and demarcated so that we don’t have university and squatters living inside the university. I’ve never seen this in my life and it’s an unusual situation here at SINU.

There are people who came in and built right inside the fence in the university. It’s actually sad when you see it. People should respect that this is a university and therefore to respect given accorded to the respect it deserves.