Fiji's third university comes into existence and begins operating this month.
The National University of Fiji merges six state owned tertiary institutions: the schools of medicine and nursing, the colleges of advanced education, teacher's training in Lautoka and agriculture and the institute of technology
The Education Minister, Filipe Bole, says the new National University of Fiji will complement the teaching at the already operating University of the South Pacific or USP:
"It's a regional institution, it does quite a bit of manpower training for Fiji, but it's largely in the social sector, social science area. OUt university is going to be highly vocational in the sense that it is going to combine the six tertiary institutions that we have in Fiji."
The University of the South Pacific is owned by 12 countries from the region, while the University of Fiji is a privately-owned institution established in 2004.
