To meet the future workforce needs of our Fijian society and participate fully in the new global economy, Government continues to provide operational grants to the Universities and other tertiary institutions. This funding aims to boost the competitiveness of the Fijian workforce over the medium to long term by giving our students access to high-quality education and professional training. By doing so, more Fijians will be armed with the knowledge, skills, and ethical responsibility to meet the employment demands of a rapidly evolving and dynamic economy and address the skills shortage in Fiji through capacity building in the areas of Nursing and Teaching.
Pursuant to section 7(g) of the Higher Education Act 2008, the Higher Education Commission Fiji (HECF) is required to “allocate government funds marked for higher education annually to higher education institutions according to transparent and well-publicised criteria for allocation’’. Moreover, reg.54 of the Higher Education Regulations 2009 provides the requirements that the Commission must consider when determining the allocation of grants to institutions.
HEIs have been allocated Government Grants for the 2023-2024 financial year through the assessment of Costed Operational Plans (COPs) submitted. The broad output areas included in the COPs have the following components:
(i) teaching and learning: which recognises the costs of delivering education and the number of students but calculated differently in the two models;
(ii) equity: to incentivise enrolment in and completion of qualifications by students from disadvantaged groups, particularly students with disabilities and students from low-income families;
(iii) performance: to incentivise HEIs to support their students towards completion of their studies but calculated differently in the two models; and
(iv) national priority: to recognise the Government’s role to steer the system through directing more funding to institutional needs, programmes, fields of study or other initiatives that are assessed as contributing to current and future national development priorities.
(v) research: incentivises universities to conduct research aligned to Fiji’s national needs. The research component has three sub-components:
(i) research capability: to help universities build their capability to do research;
(ii) research education: to incentivise universities to build strong teaching-research links; and
(iii) research value: to incentivise universities to focus their research on Fiji’s national development needs.
(vi) institutional base subsidy: non-university model component that is reflecting the fact that these HEIs are small and therefore, unable to achieve economies of scale.
A total of ten (10) HEIs have been allocated a sum of $103.3m Government grant for the 2023-2024 financial year through an assessment of COPs submitted by HEIs. The table below lists the breakdown of grants allocated to HEIs that will be administered by the Higher Education Commission Fiji.
Higher Education Institution 2023-2024 Grant Allocated ($)
The Fiji National University- $41,456,429
FNU Grant – Monash University- $2,000,000
The University of Fiji- $2,804,774
The University of the South Pacific- $33,530,000
USP Outstanding Grant- $20,000,000
Fulton Adventist University College- $159,598
Sangam Institute of Technology- $614,411
Corpus Christi Teachers College- $131,500
Vivekananda Technical Centre- $296,100
Montfort Boys’ Town- $861,417
Montfort Technical Institute- $473,583
Pacific Polytechnic Limited- $1,000,000
Total Grant $103,327,812
With the grants allocated to the HEIs, the Higher Education Commission Fiji also plays an active role in monitoring the utilisation of the Government grant to ensure accountability of public funds. To do this, the Higher Education Commission Fiji uses the Grant Management System; a tool developed to track, monitor, and report on both financial and programme output. Grants from the government are operational in nature, and HEIs utilise the grant in the areas to enhance teaching and learning, performance, research, and equity, or it may be used as an institutional base grant to support HEIs operations.
