Migration and Opportunities of Higher Education: An Analysis on the Social Mobility of USP Students and Graduates among the Pacific Islands and the Pacific Rim Countries


Hayato Yamanaka, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Tokyo Keizai University

Fumihiko Yoshida, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Communications, School of Literature, Tokai University


AN OVERVIEW OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

The higher education of the Pacific island countries is still under strong influences by suzerain countries especially British countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdoms. The higher education system among the Pacific countries are still affected by their suzerain countries, and the magnitude of roles played by the suzerain countries in terms of human resource development, for instance, the acceptance of young islanders as international students into their universities is significantly great.

The foundation of the University of the South Pacific (USP) brought about a significant impact in that it has changed to a great extent such traditional situation. USP is the only regional university in the South Pacific, consisting of 13 member island countries. USP has a characteristics as a regional institution among the South Pacific countries. This regional institution was established in 1970 by 11 island countries: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Western Samoa. In 1991 the Marshal Islands also joined USP as the 13th member consisting. The main campus is located at Laukala in Suva, the capital of the Republic of Fiji, and the second campus which is for the Department of Agronomy is placed at Alafua in Western Samoa. For students studying through the USP Extension Program, ten regional centres are established near the capital city of the ten member countries except for Tokelau.

By establishing USP the Pacific island countries could possess their own higher education institution for the first time for their history. It can be truly said that this dramatic change was more facilitated by the beginning of the USP Extension Programme. The Extension Programme started their mission in 1970 by provision of a Diploma course of primary education with primary/secondary school teachers as a correspondence course of the Department of Education. In 1974 it became an independent organization of USP.

Today, more than 3,000 students are studying on the main campus at Suva. This shows a satisfactory development of USP as a higher education institution. In addition, approximately 6,000 enrolments are counted for Extension Programme.

USP and its distance learning program provide the Pacific islanders with opportunities for higher education. They may bring a strong impact to change the trend of migration in the Pacific Region.

BACKGROUNDS OF THE RESEARCH

Since 1989 the NIME, National Institute of Multimedia Education Japan, was conducting series of research to clarify the state of distance higher education institutions in Asian and Pacific countries from 1989 to 1993. Under the project, eight higher education institutions which own distance learning programs in Asia and the Pacific regions were researched. For 1991 the University of the South Pacific Extension Programme, was selected. The research project attempted to clarify the "real" state of each distance higher education institutions.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHOD

The research had the following two objectives:

1. To examine the real state, role and effect of the system of USP Extension Programme and its regional centers, and how they function in relation to their geographical, socioeconomic and cultural conditions of each island society in which the Extension Programme is operated. Especially, to determine how regional centers are concerning the reciprocal process between internal and external factors of socioeconomic development of the island societies.

2. To see how the USP Extension Programme affects the regional development, especially the human resource development, of island societies. Focusing on both social and regional mobility of students/graduates of the distance education program, the role and function of the distance education were to be examined in terms of the human resource development in the respective island society. In addition, this research tried to clarify the unique characteristics of human resources trained through the USP distance education in comparison with those trained in metropolitan universities of the Pacific Rim countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii and West Coast of the United States.

The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of the Pacific. The final report of the research was published in 1993 by NIME. Findings of the research included a lot of useful imprecations for studying about migration of the Pacific. The discussion of this paper will be mainly based on the research findings from the research.

Regarding the methodology, this study placed a great deal of emphasis on field interviews with students/graduates. Needless to say, to study about each learners' behavior is one of the important factors in any research of education. The responses obtained through these interviews were compared among the six different student/graduates categories. The six categories are as follows:

1. Students learning at USP Suva Campus.

2. Island students learning through the Extension Program.

3. Islanders studying in metropolitan universities in the Pacific Rim.

4. Island residents completed the Extension Program.

5. Island residents graduated from USP Suva Campus.

6. Islanders remaining in the Pacific Rim countries after their graduation from metropolitan universities in these countries.

Interviews covered a wide range of subjects relating to their learning behavior and motivation, life style, life history of their education and social mobility, social status and expectation, ethnic identity, and their motivation on nation building. We selected approximately 150 samples of students/graduates from the main campus and each regional centre. In addition to these, we also selected about 50 samples from students/graduates from universities in metropolitan cities out of the South Pacific Region, such as Honolulu, San Francisco and Berkeley in the United States; Auckland, Palmerston North and Wellington in New Zealand, and Brisbane in Australia.

Interviews conducted by the interviewers were basically following to the interview sheet previously designed by the researcher. Each interview was taped and transcribed. At the same time, interviewees were categorized each interviewee's response by standardized item and coded. After the fieldwork, all data collected through the interviews were statistically analyzed by computer.


Table 1 Numbers of Interviewees by Category


FINDINGS

This paper will focus on the following question items relating social mobility and migration of the respondents: occupation, job satisfaction, availability of suitable jobs in home countries, and desire for studying or working abroad.

Responses to each item are presented in the form of cross-tabulations of the following basic data: (1) respondent category ; (2) region of residence of respondent; (3) respondent's home region.

Because of finite limits to the paper it is impossible for us to comment on all the results. Thus, only the part of the cross-tabulations that was thought to be of particular interest in this paper is examined in detail here.

The item "Respondent Category" is divided into seven types:

(1) students of USP Suva campus

(2) students of USP Extension Programme

(3) students of the higher educational system of an industrialized country

(4) graduates of USP Suva campus

(5) graduates of USP Extension Programme

(6) graduates of the higher educational system of an industrialized country

(7) those who can be cross-classified among the above six types.

As shown in the bottom line of Table 2, the number of respondents included in each type ranges from fifteen to thirty-nine.

The item "Region of Residence" literally means the region where a respondent was living at the time when he or she was asked to fill out a questionnaire sheet, whereas the item "Home Region" is the one to which a respondent belongs as a citizen. Thus, for each respondent, responses in these two categories are not necessarily identical. Responses to the two items were recorded in terms of nation, but for aggregating responses they were recorded in terms of five "regions" of the Pacific Basin.

A. Basic Characteristics of the Respondents

1. Region of Residence by Respondent Category

A cross-tabulation of respondents by two items of investigation: "Region of Residence" and "Respondent Category," revealed the following (tabulated in Table 2):

Among those who lived in Fiji at the time of the survey, a predominant portion of respondents (73.5%) were students of the USP Suva campus, whereas only 14.7 % of them were students of the Extension Programme.

In the case of Polynesian residents, students of the USP Extension Programme and those who belonged to two or more respondent categories were the two largest groups (together they totaled 31.5% of Polynesian residents). They were followed (at the time of the survey) by graduates of the USP Extension Programme (20.4%).

In the case of Micronesian residents, the largest group was composed of USP Extension students, followed by a small number of graduates of the USP Suva campus as well as those who belonged to two or more respondent categories. Melanesian residents included six to eight students of the USP Extension Programme, graduates of the USP Suva campus, and those belonging to more than one respondent category. In the case of those who were living in industrialized countries, sixty- five percent were found to be students of colleges and universities in these countries. Also included in this group were thirteen graduates of higher educational institutions in those countries.

2. Home Region by Respondent Category

A cross-tabulation of responses by "Home Region" and "Respondent Category" is shown in Table 3. In the case of respondents originally from Fiji, two student groups--students studying in industrialized countries and students of USP Suva campus--accounted for nearly two- thirds (37.1% and 28.6%, respectively). In the case of respondents originally from Polynesia, respondents tended to be distributed over various respondent categories more evenly than was the case in other regional groups.

In the case of respondents originally from Micronesia, students of USP Extension Programme formed the largest respondent category of all (29.4%). Although those respondents who were originally from Melanesia were composed of various respondent categories, there were only a few graduates of the USP Extension Programme and colleges and universities in industrialized countries (only one and two persons, respectively). Only ten respondents were originally from industrialized countries. This rather exceptional group included four respondents who belonged to two or more respondent categories.

3. Home Region by Region of Residence

Except for those students who are studying abroad, a respondent's "Home Region" agrees with his or her "Region of Residence" in most cases (see Table 4). In Table 4, rows stand for "Home Region" and columns for "Region of Residence." Thus, for instance, the first column shows numbers of Fiji residents who are originally from various regions, including Fiji. As shown in Table 4, of the thirty-four Fiji residents fifteen are originally from other regions. Among these fifteen respondents, nine of them are originally from Polynesia (Fiji is regarded as an independent region in this chapter).

As shown in the fifth column of Table 4, those respondents who are living in industrialized countries--which include the United States, New Zealand and Australia--consist of people from various regions. The largest segment of respondents among them are those from Polynesia (twenty-eight out of sixty persons), followed by Fijians (fifteen persons). Table 4, which could be regarded as a sort of matrix presenting people's movements among several regions, indicates that major movements are those from various regions to Fiji and also those from various regions to the industrialized countries. Other types of movements are negligible in number.

B. Analysis of the Relevant Factors Affecting Migration of the Respondents

1. Occupation

For assessing respondents' occupations, the respondents' oral answers, recorded by an interviewer at an interview session, were "after-coded." That is, various types of occupations which respondents mentioned were classified into several categories some time after the survey and prior to the analysis. For classifying occupations, the following four categories were used:

(1) government workers,

(2) employees of educational institutions,

(3) workers in the private sector and housewives, and

(4) students.

Although those working at educational institutions in most countries in the South Pacific are at the same time government workers, they were treated as a separate category mainly because of their numbers. The fourth category, "workers in the private sector and housewives" includes all types of workers in the private sector as well as housewives who do not have another occupation. The inclusion of these different types of workers in a single category is, of course, not desirable, but they were combined mainly because none of the groups was large enough to constitute a single category.

When examined in terms of "Respondent Category," with only one exception USP Suva campus students selected "student" as their occupation (see Table 5). In contrast, in the case of USP Extension Programme students, their occupations include not only "student," which still occupies the largest share, but also the other three types of occupations, which account for more than 60%. In the case of students who are studying in industrialized countries, the proportion of "student" was largest among the four occupation types. Graduates of USP Suva campus tend to have different types of occupations, while those who had completed the USP Extension Programme and those who had graduated from schools in industrialized countries are more likely to be "government workers" than the other types.

When examined in terms of "Region of Residence," the proportion of "student" is predominantly large in such regions as Fiji and industrialized countries (see Table 6). Unlike these regions, in Polynesia and Micronesia "student" is the smallest category (9.3% and 8.7%, respectively). In these regions, "government worker" and "employee of educational institutions" account for more than two- thirds of respondents. Melanesia is somehow similar to Fiji and industrialized countries, having a large "student" category. However, it also includes a large proportion of "government workers" as in the cases of Polynesia and Micronesia.

An aggregation of responses in terms of "Home Region" also shows regional differences of respondents' occupation (see Table 7). In Fiji, the proportion of "student" is largest (65.7%) , while those of "government worker" and "private sector" are quite small. In Polynesia and Micronesia, responses are divided into four occupational categories more evenly than the case of Fiji. In Melanesia, on the one hand, "student" occupies nearly fifty percent, while "educational institution" is quite small (6.5%). Although, as shown above, there are some quite interesting patterns, it should be noted that these patterns may be true only for our particular sample and may not be generalized beyond that.

2. Job Satisfaction

Respondents' satisfaction with their jobs was assessed by the questions: "Are you satisfied with your present job? Were you satisfied with the job that you had before you entered your university/USP programme?" They were asked to select one of four answers on an ordinal scale. Of all respondents, the percentage of "Yes, definitely" was 54.5%, followed by "Yes, to some extent" 28.8%, "Not very" 12.1%, and "Definitely not" 4.5%. Thus, more than eighty percent of all respondents were satisfied with their jobs at least to a certain extent.

Since most full-time students do not have a job other than a temporary part-time job, only a limited number of USP Suva campus students answered this question. This was the case also among students studying in industrialized countries.

When these groups were excluded, of the remaining five groups, the proportion of "Yes, definitely" is smallest in the group of USP Extension graduates (35.7%) (see Table 8). The second lowest figure is found in the group of USP Extension students (46.7%). In contrast, in the cases of USP graduates and those who graduated from college or university in industrialized countries, the proportions of "Yes, definitely" are somewhat higher than the above-mentioned groups. Thus, the finding suggests that USP Extension students are more likely to have some dissatisfaction with their jobs than other respondent categories, and that the same is true of those who had already completed the Extension Programme.

According to respondents' "Region of Residence," degree of job satisfaction is particularly low among those respondents who were living in Micronesia and industrialized countries (see Table 9). Since the former consisted of only eighteen respondents and the latter largely consisted of students studying in those countries, this result should be accepted cautiously. However, in the case of Micronesia, a similar pattern is also found when responses are subgrouped in terms of "Home Region," suggesting that the situation in Micronesia is somehow different from other regions (see Table 10).

3. Availability of Suitable Jobs in Home Countries

In order to assess the question of how respondents regarded their prospects of finding suitable jobs in their home countries, respondents were requested to answer the following question: "Do you think you can find a job that will be suitable for you in your home country?" Percentages of four answers were as follows: "Yes, definitely" 69.6%, "Yes, to some extent" 20.5%, "Not easily" 8.8%, and "Definitely not" 1.2%. Since around ninety percent of respondents gave affirmative answers,the overall job situation does not seem to be in a serious state.

Let us examine responses in the light of "Respondent Category" (see Table 11). On the one hand, the most optimistic group of respondents are USP Suva campus students. Eighty-eight percent of them believe that a suitable job will certainly be found. On the other hand, students as well as graduates of the USP Extension Programme showed a somewhat pessimistic tendency. In both groups, the proportion of "Not easily" is conspicuously large in comparison with other groups. Because of a rather small sample size, however, it is difficult to draw a definite conclusion from this finding.

Fiji residents--most of them are USP Suva campus students--are generally optimistic about finding suitable jobs in their home countries (see Table 12). All Melanesian residents answered "Yes, definitely," though this group included only fourteen respondents. Compared with the residents of the above two regions, residents of Polynesia and Micronesia were somewhat less optimistic. For instance, in these two regions proportions of the answer "Not easily" were somewhere around 14 percent, much larger than that of other regions. In the case of those respondents who were living in industrialized countries, not only was the proportion of "Yes, definitely" the smallest among the five residence groups but also a few of them answered "Definitely not," showing a clear difference from other residence groups. These findings seem to reflect their unstable prospects in finding appropriate jobs.

When the responses were subgrouped in terms of "Home Region," the most optimistic responses were obtained from the Melanesian group and the most pessimistic ones from the Micronesian group (see Table 13). Though this result is basically the same as the one explained above in relation with "Region of Residence," there is some difference with regard to Fiji. In the case of Fiji, the optimistic tendency reduces when examined in terms of "Home Region" since students from other countries are excluded from the Fijian group.

4. Desire for Studying or Working Abroad

Respondents' desire for working or studying abroad was assessed by asking the question: "Is there any country/city in which you want to work or study in the future?" Of all respondents, 61.3% of them said "Yes," and the rest "No."

The proportion of positive answers was higher in such respondent categories as USP Suva campus students (76.0%), students studying in industrialized countries (74.3%) and graduates of USP Suva campus (70.6%) (see Table 14).

In a relative sense, proportions of the answer "No" were rather high in two respondent categories -- those who belong to more than two respondent categories, and those who finished courses with the USP Extension Programme (55.6% and 53.3%, respectively).

When responses are cross-tabulated using "Region of Residence" as the second variable, proportions of those interested in going abroad are relatively high in such regions as Micronesia (76.2%) and industrialized countries (67,9%), and low in Polynesia (46.3%) (see Table 15).

A similar result was obtained when responses were cross-tabulated using "Home Region" as the second variable (see Table 16). Although some hypotheses may be presented for explaining this difference across regions, we do not attempt to explore it in this chapter, leaving it for a more appropriate occasion.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSIONS

First of all, I would like to discuss the relationship between migration and USP education. In our research it was found that USP Extension students/graduates were more motivated to work or study abroad than the island students/graduates of metropolitan universities in the rim countries.

For the Extension students the programs provided by the USP may function to provide a way to immigrate to the rim countries. It seems that, while attending the program they become inclined to move abroad seeking a better economical opportunity. This fact was verified in another finding of our research as shown in Table 8 describing the degree of job satisfaction among six different categories of the interviewees. Of these categories, according to this table, the USP Extension graduates showed the greatest discontent with their present job and, likewise, the gap concerning job satisfaction before and after the enrollment was also the greatest in this group. By enrolling the Extension program the discount seems to be magnified further. This trend seems to be even more facilitated when the economy of the country is weak and job opportunities are slim.

In addition, the Extension programs play an important role in providing not only job training but also foundations needed for further education elsewhere. In such countries as Kiribati or Tuvalu the USP education functions to provide an opportunity for those having completed the secondary level education and failed to receive a government scholarship to once again challenge for reapplying for a university level education rather than providing further training for their jobs.

From these findings of our research it may be inferred that the more education islanders gain through the USP Extension programs, the more they become inclined to move abroad. Ironically, however, when we conducted the same survey in the rim countries, we found very few students among the interviewees who had enrolled in the Extension program in the home island. This clearly indicates that in reality the number of those trained through the Extension program flowing out of their home islands is much fewer than inferred despite the great expectation expressed by many of the interviewees of this category.

From the findings of our research it may be stated that the USP Extension Service contribute to island countries in that professional knowledge and skills necessary for social development in the respective country have apparently been accumulated, but, at the same time it leaves the islanders educated and trained through the Extension programs frustrated because of scarce employment opportunities commensurate with their educational background. From this it may be further inferred that these necessary foundations for development and the frustrated islanders educated through the USP programs could generate potential social transformation in island societies.


REFERENCES

Unpublished paper: Yamanaka, Hayato and Toshio Kobayashi. The Contribution of Higher Education to National Development in the Pacific Island Countries, at "The Impact of Higher Education on Social Transformation in Asia & the Pacific" The International Symposium of National Institute of Multimedia Education, Nov. 17, 1992

Otsuka, Yusaku and Hayato Yamanaka. Student Evaluations of Extension Programs Provided by USP: A Tentative Report, Research and Development Division: Working Paper, 027-E-91, (7)1991, National Institute of Multimedia Education.

Yoshida, Fumihiko. A Study of Distance Learners in the Pacific: Analysis, in Hayato Yamanaka ed., Perspectives of Distance Learning: the South Pacific Experience, National Institute of Multimedia Education. (3)1994.