The original JCPU proposal to General Synod included these images of education in the Solomons.
Here in the Solomons, many Anglicans are now pursuing the long-held dream of a local university. Now retired as a diocesan bishop, I am supporting this project. With the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM), I co-chair the John Coleridge Patteson University (JCPU) Taskforce.
In the 19th century, new Anglican dioceses in Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand often established universities. One thinks of King's College, Halifax; Bishop's College, Lennoxville; Trinity College, Toronto; and Huron College, London, to name just a few in Canada. The aim was the development of local higher education in a Christian (indeed, Anglican) context for the human resource needs of the emerging new countries. One factor was also economic, that is, alleviating the high cost of sending young people back to England for their university education.
At the same time, university-trained missionaries were going out to places like Melanesia, engaging with new cultures, new languages, and new social settings. Education was also an important part of mission, but it started at "the bottom" and worked up—first, literacy in the convert's own language so that he or she could read the Bible, sing hymns, and participate in the Liturgy, then (often generations later) advanced secondary and tertiary education.
Education in the Solomons
In the old Diocese of Melanesia, the church and government schools did not offer secondary education until the late 1960s and only then did a few local people begin to go overseas for tertiary training as teachers, doctors, and theological educators. Fifty years later, that pattern continues, though there is more secondary education available and many now go overseas to study.
Currently Solomon Islands has no university of its own. There are branches of the University of the South Pacific and the University of Papua New Guinea in Honiara, the capital, but usually the teacher is a video screen only. Good secondary school graduates must go on to do their university education in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Australia, or New Zealand.
This situation is very costly and Solomon Islands overseas students frequently complain that the government does not send them their allowances or pay their tuition, so they are evicted from their apartments and without food or books and stationery needed for their studies. Fiji and Papua New Guinea are also sometimes unstable or violent, and stressful places to live. Students frequently want to come home when coups, strikes, and violence disrupt their studies. In short, the time has come for Solomon Islands to have a university of its own.
Why is the church involved?
But why should the church rather than the government take on this project? It is widely believed in Melanesia that education and Christian faith belong together. For example, the Anglican Church of Melanesia operates some half-dozen secondary schools, as well as a number of primary schools. They are the schools that everyone hopes their children will attend. Unfortunately, the government schools, with their more secular ethos, are plagued with student and teacher discipline problems, poor financial support, overcrowding, corruption, and often a poor quality of education.
The government's record with its diploma-level tertiary institution, the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SICHE), is not very good. It has enormous arrears, staff and student morale is poor, the place is rundown and many of the courses are of a low quality. There are frequent threats of student strikes and demands to dismiss faculty members.
Thus, many in the Solomons believe that higher education would stand a better chance of success if it were in the hands of the churches. Both the Anglican Church of Melanesia and the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church have separate university plans underway. The SDA Church already runs a successful university in Papua New Guinea, Pacific Adventist University. The success and high quality of Divine Word University, a Roman Catholic institution in Papua New Guinea, proves that the Anglican Church of Melanesia's dream can be fulfilled.
“An enormous act of faith”
The General Synod of the ACOM has approved the formation of John Coleridge Patteson University, consisting initially of two faculties, Theology and Education (including social sciences). The existing provincial theological college, Bishop Patteson Theological College—now operating a degree program (the only degree programme in the country) and too big for its present site—will become the Theology Faculty.
Already, before there is any new infrastructure in place, the task force is organizing a teachers' training program that we hope will begin in July using existing church facilities. There is an enormous need for teachers' training in the Solomons as there are hundreds of untrained teachers (having only some secondary school) teaching in primary schools and few places in SICHE to train them.
Future faculties under consideration include Nursing, Technology (to replace all the fly-by-night computer schools that dot the Honiara landscape), and Management (including development studies and project management). A research institute is also envisioned as part of the university.
The ACOM has purchased a large and beautiful upland site of 182 hectares east of Honiara. For the last two years we have been working on the project proposal which will soon be ready. The project has a full-time coordinator, architect, and education coordinator (to get the teachers’ training off the ground). The Education and Children's Services Faculty of the University of Chester has offered to be a partner in the development of the Education Faculty. We are considering officially launching the project with a fundraising consultation around Bishop Patteson's Day in September this year.
JCPU is an enormous act of faith as no donor has yet made a financial commitment to the project. The Solomon Islands government has been supportive but often they do not have the money they promise. (One complication is that Solomon Islands has no higher education legislation so we are working with the government to develop that.) However, local fundraising has begun, and we hope the quality and nature of the education we are proposing will attract funders. And we shall start small, like the early universities of Canada.
