IT’S good to see great things happening at Solomon Islands National University (SINU).
Although SINU is barely four years old, bigger and positive things are happening at our very own university.
The ground-breaking ceremony on Wednesday, which signals the beginning of a $120 million building project, is the best and biggest thing to have happened so far at SINU since its launch in early 2013.
This is a project that is set to change the physical face of SINU and elevate its status as an upcoming university in the region.
SINU inherited the old and run-down buildings from the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education when it came into being.
The same buildings are still there and being used by the staff and students.
Its campuses were far below that of other universities of the region.
But over the last three years, we have seen some changes in SINU’s physical outlook.
Its campus roads have been paved, fences being constructed around the campus, while some of the existing buildings were given new coats of paints.
Building new infrastructures is not cheap.
And so to see SINU proceeding on to build a new state-of-the art building after just three years is a huge achievement.
It shows an institution that is growing and forward-looking.
SINU is “our baby” and will remain our national pride.
It has taken us over 30 years to have it conceived.
The national government ought to take heed of the appeal SINU’s acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Basil Marasinghemade at Wednesday’s ground-breaking ceremony.
That is to send more students to SINU rather that to outside universities.
The government reportedly spent $300 million a year sending students overseas to study.
With move and move degree courses being offered at SINU, that money could be spent at our own university.
SINU still has a long way to go.
And as a nation, we have to stay true to the aims and objectives of our university, which is to provide tertiary education that is accessible and affordable to Solomon Islanders now and in the future.
Our challenge is to develop SINU to become one of the region’s best and highly competitive tertiary institutions.
That means committing more funds to support the operation of SINU and negotiating with our donor partners to help bring experienced university educators from overseas.
Congratulations to SINU on the progresses it made so far.
