The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) new Kiribati Campus construction has been completed and will be officially opened by the President of Kiribati, His Excellency Mr Anote Tong today.
The construction of the new 1,764 square metre building (with an additional 882 square metres on the vacant ground floor) commenced in late 2014, and is funded through an Asian Development Bank (ADB) soft loan of US$3.6m.
The three storey steel structured building comprises 4 teaching rooms, lecture theatre, library, book shop, video-conference room, computer lab, science lab, an Atoll Research Centre, College of Foundation Studies and Student Academic Services offices, Flexible Learning room and staff offices in the top two floors. The ground floor can be used as an additional study space by students.
USP Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Rajesh Chandra is happy with the completion of the new campus, adding that, the new campus will be a milestone achievement which will benefit the people of Kiribati by helping them reach their goals in higher education.
The new Kiribati campus will be fully operational from Semester I, 2016.
A USP Centre was first opened in Kiribati in 1976 with the appointment of a resident Centre Director who operated out of a one-room office at the government-run King George V School.
