Only time will tell if the coronavirus global pandemic will change the face of higher education in Samoa and the world.

And with the emergence of new variants of the COVID-19 from South Africa to the United Kingdom and Brazil – compelling pharmaceutical companies to work on upgrading their vaccines – studying at home and or in-country might be the only viable option going forward at this time.

The impact of the coronavirus on international students globally is well documented and this comes on the back of recent comments by the Australian High Commissioner to Samoa, Sara Moriarty, that the Australian government is cutting scholarship awards for Samoa and the rest of the region due to challenges posed by COVID-19.

Therefore, the appeal by National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) President and Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr. Alec Ekeroma in last Saturday’s January 30, 2021 edition of the Samoa Observer (Vice Chancellor urges scholars to enrol locally) to scholars who initially planned to study overseas to consider the N.U.S. makes sense.

“I have gone on record requesting students who cannot attend overseas universities due to border closures, to enrol at N.U.S. in the meantime,” he said.

Prof. Ekeroma added that a total of 14 students were unable to travel last year and most students cannot travel until the second semester. 

But there is a reason why more families are sending their children overseas to undertake undergraduate and postgraduate studies – local higher education institutions such as the N.U.S. are not up to the mark in terms of providing quality study programmes that would meet international benchmarks.

Except for the university’s Masters Degree in Development Studies, which was accredited by the International Accreditation Council in March 2020, most of the programmes offered by the N.U.S. are not internationally accredited. 

Consequently, except for some certificates and diplomas, degrees that are awarded by the university are not recognised overseas, when graduates seek employment opportunities abroad.

These are legacy issues that successive university administrations have been unable to address, prior to Prof. Ekeroma taking up his appointment in October 2019. And failure to address it will continue to deny the N.U.S. the opportunity to woo Samoa’s best and brightest scholars.

In June last year a Parliamentarian expressed concern that diplomas and degrees awarded to N.U.S. graduates were not recognised in New Zealand and Australia. 

“The students who are awarded the qualifications, whose families are then successful in the quota for New Zealand, end up having to retake diploma or another degree in New Zealand to seek employment,” said the M.P. “That’s because our local degrees are not recognised there.”

In fact this issue was brought to the attention of the Cabinet in October last year, which led to the issuing of a directive to the N.U.S. to forward its programmes to the Samoa Qualifications Authority (S.Q.A.) for accreditation.

Despite the intervention by the Cabinet, it is not known if the process of accreditation by the country’s national university has made progress, in terms of working with the S.Q.A. to raise the quality of the courses being delivered.

And there continues to be reports of students who have completed an N.U.S. programme, for example Foundation (University Preparatory Year), being refused enrollment in New Zealand and Australian institutions due to its non-recognition.

Looking at the appeal by Prof. Ekeroma, we don’t question its merits and can see the long-term benefits of retaining the country’s best, and to steering them through a study programme that would ultimately enable them to become part of Samoa’s human resource.

But the N.U.S. should first get the basics right and start working towards getting all its study programmes accredited through the S.Q.A. as directed by the Cabinet, before moving to the next phase to seek international accreditation.

This is a move that will not only benefit the university administration, but in the long-run its students as international accreditation should translate to academic regulation of a programme’s course content to ensure it is of a premium quality, and would meet the needs of the scholar when he or she gets into the workforce.

And we understand that accreditation doesn’t only apply to course content or how they are delivered in the lecture halls. It could include pillars that cover university governance, student welfare, state of the campus (health and safety), qualifications and even student recruitment and marketing. 

Ultimately, getting the N.U.S. to sign up to and undergo an international accreditation process, will need Government support as it will be a costly exercise.

However, it will be a worthwhile investment, if the 37-year-old university is to move to the next level of educating Samoa’s next generation of leaders.