“ Congratulations to the scholarship winners!
Just a minor correction to the article in case the Tonga public are misinformed. Please correct me if I am wrong but I think this is not the first time a USP degree program is being offered completely in Tonga, as outlined by the article. The USP MBA degree program is currently offered face-to-face at Tonga Campus, and it has been running for many years.
However, as a science graduate and former lecturer of the USP, I would like to seek clarification from preferably Professor Sharma or anyone from USP, regarding the nature of these Tonga-based science programs:
1) Are these BSc programs intended for Tonga Campus exactly the same (in content and rigor) as those that are offered only at Laucala and Alafua?
2) According to the article, all courses (100, 200, and 300 levels) will be taught at Tonga Campus. How are you going to thoroughly teach the many courses that require the expensive equipment and machines that are not available at Tonga Campus? I understand that most if not all of the machines which are required for 200-level and 300-level chemical analysis, for example, are not available at Tonga Campus. These are also not portable making them almost impossible to leave the floors of the main laboratories at Laucala Campus.
3) Will the successful graduates of these Tonga-based degree programs be accepted to postgraduate studies in universities other than USP?
Malo ”