The Master of Business Administration (MBA) began its first class on Tuesday August 17 with a total of forty two students. All forty two students were enrolled in the General Management specialization of the MBA programme. Courses that are covered in this trimester include two bridging courses, Analytical Skills for Managers and Communication Skills for Managers as well as two regular MBA courses which are, Organizational Dynamics and Pacific Business Environment. For the Pacific Business environment course, a few guest speakers have been invited. These guest speakers include; Ms. Jinita Prasad, CEO of the South Pacific Stock Exchange, Honourable Ministers Mr. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Mr. Felipe Bole, Dr. Mahendra Reddy, Chairman, Commerce Commission of Fiji, Mr. Adrian Sofield, Chairman, Fiji Islands Trade & Investment Bureau, Mr. Rakesh Sharma, Chief Executive (Fiji Operations), Bank of Baroda and Ms. Sereana Qoro, Managing Director, Fijian Holdings Limited to name a few.

The MBA programme consists of twelve courses which are offered on a trimester basis with four courses offered in a trimester. The University’s MBA coordinator, Professor Mohit Kolay said that there was a Market for MBA studies in the country and since Fiji was expanding rapidly in economic terms and with rapid development, there was an accelerated need for the quantity of skilled managers and leaders. “Fiji needs more and more well trained managers so that it can become and remain globally competitive in the business world. The number of MBAs currently produced in Fiji is proportionally low compared to the
number that Fiji needs to sustain and build on its economic growth,” he said. He also added that Fiji was in a state where business processes were being developed—industries which were previously unregulated or non-existent were now coming into existence.

To manage these new industries and reorganize those businesses which were already in place Fiji needed managers with MBA who could improve productivity. “The MBA programme of the University of Fiji will especially focus on entrepreneurial skill development— growth of homemade small and medium scale industries is a must for continued development of Fiji and we strongly feel that we can play a role in that process,” he said. Professor Kolay concluded by saying that the University of Fiji’s MBA programme is unique in that there are three specializations which are Human Resource Management, Tourism and Hospitality Management and General Management. “Each stream will have a set of six stream-specific courses so that outgoing graduates will have a firm grasp of the practical areas of their area of specialization. These specializations are a unique offering in the landscape of MBA in Fiji.