The University of Otago has donated over a 100 books to the Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship at the National University of Samoa (NUS).

A ceremony was held at the Taputoi Conference Room at the NUS where representatives from both universities witnessed the donation. 

The NUS Vice Chancellor, Professor Fui Asofou So'o, accepted the donation and said the university is thankful for the gesture and he looked forward to furthering the partnership between the two educational institutions. 

"The students at our university together with lecturers will benefit immensely from this support and this enhance the learning abilities for our students studying in field of business and entrepreneurship.

"We offer our sincere appreciation and thankfulness because this is not the first time Otago has aided our university and hopefully in the future we can continue this ongoing partnership from both universities," he said.

The University of Otago Pro Vice Chancellor (commerce), Professor Robin Gauld, said the two universities had a relationship dating back many years and the donation of the books symbolises the journey that both universities are on.

“Otago University joined forces with its Faculty of Business to collect and donate more than a hundred books to assist FBE – we are seeking to grow our focus on the Pacific especially on Samoa.

“The gifting of the books is an important symbol of the journey that we are on, its one way to contribute to the development – but this is the second consignment, and the first was presented last year on October.

“I think that there is a lot that we can discuss and we just have to see our mutual interests are once we have had some further discussion,” he said.

But this is not the end of the partnership with Prof. Gould indicating that there is scope for joint research projects and curriculum development. 

“We are really keen on helping with development and they include support for research projects and we have a lot expertise in research running projects and methods like partnering up and assisting with getting research projects up and running.

“In other areas we would like to assist in research, curriculum development and possibly accreditation, and a whole range of other areas.

“Samoa is a part of who we are as New Zealand not only because of our location being close but also many Samoan people live there and so we try to be good neighbours and help with whatever way we can," he added.