THE Fiji National University’s College of Engineering and Technical Vocational Education and Training (CETVET) has received the Dublin Accord Accreditation for five of its main Diploma Programs, setting the platform for globally benchmarked education for engineering scholars at the institution.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, CETVET dean Salabogi Mavoa said the accreditation was a major achievement not just for FNU but for Fiji.
“We have five Diploma programs that we had applied for accreditation for: Diploma in Electrical Engineering, Diploma in Electronic Instrumentation, Diploma in Telecommunications Engineering, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and Diploma in Civil Engineering,” Mr Mavoa said.
“These Diplomas are very important to us because this is the backbone of the industries in Fiji. Students who do these Diploma programs are actually the people who go on to work in the industries in Fiji.”
He said the Dublin Accord Accreditation mainly concerned the field of engineering and while engineering diploma programs had been offered at FNU during its Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT) days, they have never achieved accreditation until now.
“We redesigned our diploma programs in 2018 to benchmark to the international accreditation. Previously, we’ve been offering diploma programs from FIT which were developed in line with the programs that are offered in the United Kingdom, Australia and NZ, so, even though it was not accredited as such, we were offering programs that were aligned to what was offered in Australia, NZ and UK.
“That’s why our students who have completed FIT diploma would go and finish their degrees in those countries.
“So it was like a default accreditation because they were recognised. When you finish your diploma from FIT, you can go straight and do your degree in either Auckland University…some of us went to the United Kingdom. We got our degree from there.
“So our diploma was recognised in that sense.
“Now, it’s a different level where it’s accredited, which means we’ve achieved the benchmark for that accreditation, which is recognised worldwide in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Korea, United States, Singapore, etc.”
He said FNU is now the first and only institution in Fiji with a Dublin Accord Accreditation, which will be backdated to cover about 700 students who have graduated from FNU’s schools of engineering and whose diplomas now carry the full accreditation.
“It’s good for Fiji in that our students can go and work anywhere in the world. With that qualification they can go and work anywhere in the world.
“Also, those from overseas can also come and do it here, once they know it’s accredited – it would be cheaper, even Australia and New Zealand would find it cheaper – once they know we are offering the program, they are most welcome to come.”
FNU’s engineering diplomas are available to students with a Form Six pass and who score over 70 in Mathematics and Physics plus a pass in two other subjects.
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Note: This article was first published under the headline: Global certification – Engineering diploma programs receive Dublin Accord Accreditation in Page 13 of the print version of The Fiji Times dated Thursday, September 04, 2025
