Islands Business - Business Profile: BORN'S NEW PLANS FOR USP'S BUSINESS FACULTY

Working closely with private, public sectors.

Samisoni Pareti
If Jeffrey Born has his way, the newly created faculty he heads at the University of the South Pacific's main campus in Fiji will not only 'teach' students business and economics, it will also allow them to 'live' it.

Jeffrey Born... business and economics course engine of growth for USP.

He is dean of the faculty, one of four the university has created from the old school structure it used to have. Gone for example is SSED, the School of Social and Economic Development.

Its management, business and economic streams now form the faculty of business and economics, while the school's other disciplines-sociology, history and politics-are now grouped with the Faculty of Arts and Law headed by Professor Robert Hughes.

For the remaining SSED departments of geography, land management and tourism, they now come under Samoa's Dr Pa'olelei Luteru, dean of the faculty of islands and oceans. Dr Luteru was deputy ACP secretary-general before taking up this new position.

The other remaining faculty is science and technology, which encompasses departments under the old School of Pure and Applied Science.

“We are quite excited about this new change,” Born explains. “(USP) had been anxiously waiting for this for several years.

“At least in the United States, there are very few new faculties or colleges of business as we would call them, that are created. Most institutions already have them in place so this is rather a very unique opportunity.”

Born spoke to ISLANDS BUSINESS in his spacious but sparsely equipped office. Without air-conditioning, the former senior associate dean of North-Eastern University's college of business and administration in Boston was still adjusting to the Suva autumn.

“I'm mindful that there are differences in work regulations around the region so I'm not going to create North-Eastern here.

“But there are elements of our programmes that are very, very successful and I have a natural desire to be supportive of.”

One of these programmes is called co-opt which encourages business students to use up a semester or so taking up paid jobs with commercial companies or state organisations.

It is something like an apprentice scheme that is common around the Pacific region, although students under the co-opt programme do not get course credits. So good is the co-opt programme that the US News & World Report newspaper described it as one of the best in the United States.

Said Born: “It is healthy for the three parties; the employers are able to get the services of very fine young men and women who are right in the middle of their education programme.

“Students get the opportunity to see if what they are being taught in the classroom is of value to them at work.

“And our faculty is able to have connections with the business community that will allow them to do more research and also give feedback from their students.”

Born is wary about importing new ideas without consultation with members of his faculty whom he described as very active, highly qualified and energetic.

Asked about his vision for the faculty, the professor said he was in the process of formulating one, with input from all staff members.

So perhaps for USP, an option he says is for the faculty of business and economics to partner with the business community in the Pacific. This he believes will come in handy for USP's campuses and centres that dot the Pacific Ocean.

“Sometimes that would be through instructions, sometimes that would be through internships, sometimes they might be able to make key employees available to us for classroom purposes.

“I'm looking forward to the opportunity to partner with the business community both here in Fiji and in the region.

“We have a number of regional campuses and centres where there are I suspect strong desires for face to face instructions and I'd like to develop strategies where we might be able to provide some of that instructions.”

Two months in office, Born is very clear about his challenges; one is the popularity of the business and economic classes and the stresses these bring to staff members and infrastructure, as well as the importance of an active alumni.

With preliminary figures showing enrolment rate this year surpassing the annual USP's enrolment growth rate by 100%, Born says his faculty has been the university's real engine for growth.

Teacher to student ratio has to be brought down and the dean says the university's senior administrators are receptive to his desire for more classroom space.

Under the new structure, the four deans have control of their own budgets and Born prefers to be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to staff's pay and working conditions.

One way of achieving this, he says, is for the faculty to have a policy in place to ensure that “your highly performing staff members whether they are in the faculty or administration are properly compensated.”

Being new, the faculty would also like to document its achievements and successes, and one way of doing this is through a vibrant alumni.

“We should start right away with a new tradition because I think that's the kind of information prospective students are quite interested in.”

Curriculum review is an on-going exercise and Born says a “very serious external review” is being planned for USP. This will provide another opportunity to re-look at the faculty's entire programmes. Part of this re-evaluation will encompass the dilemma many Pacific students of business and economics face when trying to apply industrialised appropriate concepts and theories to small, remote and vulnerable islands economies.

Said Born: “It is an area where many in our faculty have done extensive research in the past and I think that one of my jobs is to make sure this very valuable research get disseminated to both students and policymakers.”