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NO PRIZE FOR GUESSING: Vice-Chancellor Rajesh Chandra comes out of cold to welcome his USP staff members - damage limitation message

16/2/2017

11 Comments

 
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Welcome Message to Staff from the Vice-Chancellor and President

I wish to welcome all of you warmly back to the University for yet another crucial year. To all those who have joined us for the first time, a very warm welcome to our unique and wonderful university. I hope that you are, as I am, starting the new year refreshed and determined to carry out your work with increased vigour  and in particular to complete Strategic Plan implementation on schedule.  

In 2016, we achieved many things, but much remains to be done and we have two years remaining in the SP to accomplish that.     It is worth reflecting on the fact that a decade ago USP was in a dire financial situation; no one would have imagined then that, just ten  years later, we would have had operating surpluses every year; secured a US$ 19 million soft loan from ADB to develop the Regional Campuses (with Kiribati Campus already done and Solomon Islands campus on track); attained accreditation for 18 programmes and have the accreditation process underway with WSCUS; offer dozens of highly-regarded professional and technical education programmes in addition to Higher Education,  introduced new programmes;  exercise a clear regional ICT leadership role, to name just a few of our many accomplishments.

The reputation of the University nationally, regionally and internationally has gone up beyond our expectations—and your contributions have been crucial in this. We have worked as a team to bring USP from a precarious financial situation with low staff morale ten years ago to being on the cusp of attaining excellence.  We have proven that, with determination and diligence, and working together cohesively, we are capable of great things and I am confident that we will be outstanding in many, if not all, areas of our operations by our 50th anniversary in 2018.   Let me thank you for all your hard work during 2016.  We have a lot to be proud of, and today we have an institution that is markedly more flexible, resilient, and innovative than ever before.  We started 2016 with tropical cyclones that devastated Fiji and Samoa.  USP staff and students responded by coming together with an outpouring of charity.  USP staff worked to keep all of the University’s own students on track as well as provided support to affected secondary school students.    We ended last year with very large and joyful graduation ceremonies that celebrated larger number and more diverse graduates than ever before.  

We are on track to again increase enrolments this year, and are ready to provide them with high quality education in all our Campuses.  Markedly improved student support services, particularly for students with disabilities, will ensure that those enrolments are successful and complete their programmes on time at USP.    Our student experience, characterized by talented academics, inspiring research, plentiful opportunities for debate and enrichment, access to multicultural activities and friendly sporting and cultural events, is one of USP’s best points, and that student experience is shaped by you, the USP staff.  I am so grateful that USP staff members are committed to offering students the very best educational experience and value for money.  Our Member Countries and their citizens and our development partners count on this commitment that we will always strive to do better.   

The Year Ahead Continuous improvement is one of USP’s core values, so let us all start 2017 thinking about how we can be more effective, efficient and sustainable. We will measure our results at the end of the year based on how much progress we record against our goal of achieving excellence by 2018.   In some areas, this will be challenging, which is why I am asking Priority Area Leaders  to assist one another and to give special attention to functional areas such as Human Resources, which began our Strategic Plan 2013- 2018 period with larger challenges to overcome.  The overhaul of Properties and Facilities started in 2016 to deliver better results in a more efficient manner. We need to ensure that this is fully accomplished.  All service areas need to improve their service delivery to students, staff and to other stakeholders.   All staff have been provided with the resources that they need to deliver on Strategic Plan objectives. 

I look forward to each member of the Senior Management Team to exercising full leadership in their respective priority areas. Delegating is highly important, and I expect all staff to share their workloads wisely so that we can all achieve more while maintaining our commitment to providing the best possible student experience.  I am counting on staff to support their managers, those staff that report to them, and to their colleagues in other sections.  We are a team, and must work as such.   We are engaged in a fundamental re-engineering of our systems in finance, human resources, IT and Student Services to make them more effective, efficient, less bureaucratic, more intelligent, and comparable to best universities in the world. There is digital disruption everywhere globally on an unprecedented scale. We at USP need to harness the power of digitization and artificial intelligence as an intelligent, knowledge institution. As we make progress in these areas—and we need to speed up this work—we will see a smarter, more friendly, user-centred USP.    

Last year’s workshop on risk management felt overwhelmingly that we need to strengthen our culture of prompt, honest and constructive feedback and hold people accountable for their actions and inactions. I wish to ask and require each supervisor/manager/director and SMT to strengthen the culture of accountability. This will be taken into account in their performance management given the centrality of a results and accountability driven culture that is so vital to our achievement of excellence.  

There are numerous events slated for 2017 that will bring international attention to the University and, again, our teamwork will be called in to play.  We expect to assist Fiji, our CROP partners and our member governments in the “2017:  Year of the Pacific Ocean” which will be launched at the UN in June.  We will continue to provide leadership in the areas of ICT, Climate Change, and Pacific Studies.  We must take care to extract maximum leverage from all of our interactions with external parties, and to be highly proactive and professional at all times.  Opportunities to advance our own work or the work of the University for its Region should be promptly identified and raised with managers; if we are always thinking creatively and ambitiously, we will achieve greater things at a much faster rate.      

For example, we must record more meaningful improvements in the area of Human Resources this year.   Systems will be strengthened and HR service delivery, especially in terms of recruitment and responsiveness, should improve.  It is important to me that USP staff are happy and feel valued and incentivised to perform at their best.    Our journey toward WSCUC accreditation continues; whilst this is a long process, it is helpful, and in some areas essential, for our reputation, quality control, linkages with international institutions, and international student and staff recruitment.  Accreditation is a major focus for 2017.    

I will ask more frequently for evidence that progress is being made on accreditation, and I hope to receive regular updates on how the quality of teaching and of research is being improved.  Quality will continue to be
one of USP’s points of distinction; we must have objective evidence of both our quality and our impact in and for the region.    

I thank you sincerely for all that you are doing to make USP the region’s best university.  I hope that I can soon thank you for shaping USP into one of the world’s best universities.  I believe in thinking big and striving, rather than setting easily achievable goals and accomplishing them easily just to “look good”.  Our region deserves and needs the best education and research to adapt to Climate Change and literally stay afloat in our highly-competitive globalized world.    We are facing formidable challenges as we near the end of the current Strategic Plan. As we take inspiration from USP’s mission statement, we must look at our own work and ask whether it is the best, or all, that we can do.  If, as individual staff members, we can do more or better, I hope that we will resolve to deliver.   

I also hope that cooperation will be the order of the day, as by working together, we will meet our objectives much faster and uncover greater efficiencies.  Please share your ideas as to how we can all do better with your supervisors, and if you feel that you need greater support to meet your goals, also share that.  We can think creatively to solve any challenges and in particular celebrating our success in 2018-year of our 50th Anniversary and working towards development of a dynamic and forward looking  Strategic Plan beyond for the period 2019-2024.  

I am anticipating another very successful year for USP, and look forward to your role in helping to achieve our Strategic Plan goals.  We have a lot to be proud of already but we have to deliver more. Let us ensure that we deliver outstanding results for our stakeholders again in 2017 and beyond.   

Best wishes to you and your families in 2017.  

Professor Rajesh Chandra Vice-Chancellor and President The University of the South Pacific
Headquarters and Laucala Campus
Suva REPUBLIC OF FIJI

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11 Comments
Welcome Home
16/2/2017 12:37:42 pm

Six 'I' paragraphs and one 'We' ...?
This is foremost a matter of style and tone. Not a trivial matter. Indeed back in 1963 in a place used by Sir Winston Churchill to source his PAs and Secretaries, one was carefully instructed NEVER to use 'I' more than twice in the opening of a paragraph in any letter or document. For good reason and here we find a revealing surfeit of the First Person Singular!


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Churchill v Hitler
16/2/2017 01:23:50 pm

But we forget we seem to be living under Hitlerism at USP

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WHY BOTHER?
16/2/2017 02:15:44 pm

So they are now saying that it will be an uphill battles to replace this corrupt VCP rajesh chandara because he is unreplaceable even after his 30 years of bigotry, nepotism, corruption, self indulgence.....this list can go on and on!!

The question is why bother? Bring in Dr Dilawar Grewal, even on on acting basis (this word "acting" should sound familiar to USP pundits), set stringent KPIs and give him 18 months to sort the rort, mess and filth left by chandra.

I am sure, and so will the people of fiji, Dr Grewal will turn USP on its head. After all, his disclosures and recommendations evince that he is passionate to see USP succeed. Isn't that, coupled with his existing VC Administration experience testimony to this??

Please prove me wrong??

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Gulong
16/2/2017 04:55:41 pm

The welcome letter is a good example of Obamaism, the prattling or shall I say preening of a narcicist. It's the longest welcome letter I have ever read. You ask yourself if it's necessary? Much of it is better destined for an annual report.

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Fiji First Party
16/2/2017 06:55:45 pm

Over the past few days, we have assiduously read (and even enjoyed) Dr. Dilawar Grewal’s – a rather ample - situational analyses of some of USP’s prevailing realities (his mini thesis). Dr. Grewal is professional, logical and empirical (testable and verifiable). His work includes concrete examples of people, places and situations (of conflicts and compromise). Dr. Grewal is also very pragmatic in his recommendations and his visions are always aligned to USP being and becoming an ‘academic institution of repute’ not only regionally but globally.

Dr. Grewal has but basically developed for USP a comprehensive ‘blue-print’ for it to virtually rocket into the FUTURE. A task of this stature, even if attempted by lesser Consultants (like those who wrote –“The Charter”) would have cost USP an arm and a leg. Dr. Grewal did it for FREE – as a parting gift for the benefit and betterment of USP.

A Big Vinaka Vaka Levu – to Dr. Dilawar Grewal –is in order! WE hope Dr. Grewal is also taking some fine and fond memories of Fiji and we wish him and his family an enlightened future.

Now moving onto the motivational welcome speech by the VCP Professor Rajesh Chandra, we can almost hear him begging, like so, “I also hope that cooperation will be the order of the day”, and do note the polite ‘please’ in as “Please share your ideas”, and, and, yes “we can think creatively” (we hope so too). The VCP is trying so hard, to be a ‘regular humble scholar’ that he almost sounds insincere and FAKE.

The bulk of his speech, we are sorry to say, is cliché, dry and boring and which would motivate no one. And if an objective of the VCP’s speech was to do any sort of a damage control over Dr. Grewal’s revelations, than by not acknowledging Dr. Grewal’s recommendations, as an existing reality, VCP has FAILED dismally.

And the silence from the Minister of Education pertinent to the USPGate is deafening!

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Rajend Naidu
16/2/2017 08:36:41 pm

Editor,
A Delusional Leader
In his latest press conference President Donald Trump says his administration is " running like a fine-tuned machine ... I turned on the tv, open the newspapers and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite" (abc 16/2).
Is it?
The list of his failures is already becoming long despite his short time as president.
This " mentally unstable narcissist" has no real grasp of reality.
He lives in a parallel world of his own delusional creation.
He is not the first leader to be so afflicted .
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

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USP Staff
17/2/2017 12:30:08 am

Rajesh USP may be beautiful for you but not for us anymore. You have ruined it. Your deans and head of schools act like tin-pot dictators because of the example you set and culture of bullying you fostered.

You have systematically over the years destroyed staff perks and virtually frozen our salaries. We have paid the price for your poor financial decision-making. So has the university. It is no longer able to attract and retain quality staff. So students' education suffers.

USP is rife with nepotism. People you favour, such as your cronies former union president Lingam and VP Dhiraj get perks, promotions and trips whereas it is made impossible for other staff to get increment or bonus.

You bought off the corrupt staff union. Robin Havea is president in name only. The main show is run by your boy Dhiraj who sold out members.

Poor financial decision-making includes hiring washed out expats like Derrick Armstrong. He is holidaying in Fiji. Dr Jito can do a better job. you waste f funds hiring expats because you discriminate locals.

In 8 short years you have destroyed what took decades to build. Do the decent thing and resign. You have been a miserable failure as VC and many people have suffered. We can't wait to see you go.

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Had it
19/2/2017 08:57:48 am

I agree... All this nonsense about having surpluses and all staff having adequate resources is crap. There is a lot of vacant positions not being filled with low paid staff having to cater for the workload. You guys are using your political powers to suppress those who speak against you. You are scared of the mistakes you made so bad that you get rid of the good people systematically. Bullies you are and then you say you have achieved a lot. Name one thing you achieved without stepping over someone. You think you make sound decisions and are leaders but your not. All this family team talk is crazy and nonsense. You never cared for those who work hard... Speeches are only so much...

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Karma link
17/2/2017 11:08:35 pm

Thanks Victor for bringing up Arvin Patel the two headed snake in picture. There is no proper term to describe this self serving, egoistic maniac person let loose in an institution designed to bread future leaders and business minds if nation. Please I can't wait to read more on his corruption, idiocracry and demise with his bunch of gay guggy chamcas who encircle this idiot lunatic like little chucks around mother hand.

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Find out what's happening at YSP link
18/2/2017 01:04:19 pm

Find out how much VC made by permitting 'cloned' Asus pcs to be imported from the dealer in Australia. The dealer is no other than his old chum Robert Hemi who was the USP bookshop manager.
Find out how much cut Jay Karan mskes foe his preferred businesses doing business for USP.
Academics dont have decent offices, their pcs are more than 8 yes old and beyond repairs. Yet VC and his wife can travel around the world business class once ever year. Get their house done up again and again. SMT can enjoy air conditioning rooms while real staff are treated like slaves.
Find out how many sexual harassment cases belonging to Arvind Patel and Bibhya Sharma were shelved

Find out why we have such spineless people in Council who just come to eat and sleep. Find out why VC is do close to FF and AG and pathetic minister of education.
Find our why VC can't say no to anything that is connected to Anjela Jokhan.

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Chiku
24/2/2017 06:44:19 pm

Sometimes the expression so and so is a disgrace is meant in a very literal sense. It would seem, from what is said about USP vice chancellor and president ( not for life ) Rajesh Chandra, he is a disgrace in a very literal sense. The USP as a great regional university has had its good reputation seriously damaged by this rotten VC - a deranged, power intoxicated and manipulative head of institution. The fish rots from the head. Rajesh Chandra is such a rotten head.

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