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The purpose of this paper is to create an area profile of significant activity and possibility in higher education for sustainable development (ESD) in the island nations of the South Pacific Ocean.

This is a descriptive research paper on philosophy, policy, and practice according to a methodology of categorical analysis by developments, challenges, and prospects. The focus is on higher education institutions, particularly the University of the South Pacific, the regional university of 12 Island nations in Oceania. The developments and prospects are contextualized, however, in the larger regional Pacific Education for Sustainable Development Framework and the Action Plan for Sustainable Development in the Pacific Islands 2008‐2014. Academic programs, policy statements, and education projects are analyzed.

South Pacific universities possess rich missions that valorize traditional knowledge and culture. The region also has a sophisticated policy environment for sustainability. These factors create many opportunities for sustainability in higher education. Nevertheless, enormous challenges of distance, funding, cultural traditions, globalisation, and adaptation to the devastating effects of climate destabilisation make progress difficult. Successes and promising prospects are described, including a new major effort to mainstream higher ESD by creating a Pacific Network of Island Universities (the NIU Project), which will reach 13 nations, including Papua New Guinea.

Little analysis of sustainability in higher education has been done in this geographical area. The categorical approach of this paper will provide researchers with findings appropriate to several endeavors, including charting a way forward in sustainability in higher education in the South Pacific Island nations. South Pacific initiatives arising from the unique nature of island geography and tradition could illuminate for others what is called the “Pacific Way.” Comparative analysis to mainland nations in the Asia‐Pacific region may also prove useful to researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to articulate the etiology of ethnic conflict in Fiji that moves beyond polemical interpretations which routinely and often erroneously apportion blame.

A critical survey of ethnic conflict between in Indo‐ and indigenous Fijians is offered. The implication of British colonialism on the conflict is underscored.

The paper concludes that the first three coups that occurred in Fiji between 1987 and 2000 were, to varying degrees, the coupled result of the deterioration of indigenous paramountcy in Fijian politics on the one hand and the lack of their improvement in socio‐economic status on the other. In contrast, the 2006 coup is the product of intra‐ethnic discord amongst indigenous Fijians, which ultimately sidelines the question of indigenous paramountcy.

Unlike previous arguments that have largely ignored economic determinants in creating and perpetuating ethnic conflict in Fiji, this paper illustrates how such factors are crucial to conceptualize an understanding of discord between Indo‐ and indigenous Fijians.

This paper seeks to examine the milieu of reporting in two villages operating on Koro Island, Republic of Fiji Islands. It aims to analyse how both western‐narrow and traditional reporting offers rural villages extensive opportunities to discharge responsibilities of stewardship, accountability and accounts of the activities of farmers and stores in an agrarian setting, whether the activities are subsistence‐ or cash‐based.

Fieldwork was conducted in two villages of Koro Island, Nacamaki and Nabuna, to ascertain the milieu of reporting, and open‐ended interviews were conducted with villagers from both villages. The “view from the centre” is adopted here, rather than the “view from the periphery”.

The study shows that people of both Nacamaki and Nabuna villages have adapted their specific reporting styles according to the circumstances facing them. Despite being only 5 km apart, two sharply contrasting village reporting milieux emerge. One relies greatly on the use of both Traditional oral and Western‐narrow hand‐written reports to fulfil accounts of entities (co‐operative and individual farmers) operating in the village. The other prefers oral communication to any form of written communication to raise accounts of villagers' collectivist and independently charged, agrarian‐based activities.

The study raises three sets of policy issues that are central to the development of reporting in Eastern Fijian villages. Numerous resources are unnecessary in presenting a western‐narrow account of transactions when the accounts are supplemented by a traditional reporting mien. Western‐narrow reporting appears to be well received by co‐operative members and individually oriented farmers. In the absence of Western‐narrow reporting, Traditional reporting seems to serve the needs of both communally oriented and individualistically inclined villagers. The results of the study underlie both the complexity of village life in determining systems of reporting and the fragility of written reporting in Eastern Fijian outer island villages.

The study shows the way in which Eastern Fijian villages resolve subsistence and cash exchanges at the social level, taking into account local conventions, customs, laws, rituals and values.

The originality of the paper rests in considering villagers' own reporting through internal points of reference, providing space for interrelations between traditional Fijian values, the island landscape and the cultural geography.

The goal of this article is two-fold. The first is to contribute new insights to inform education policies for addressing the underlying educational inequalities and injustices that are caused by lack of epistemic access in the context of Fiji higher education. The second is to explore how the Grounded Theory Methodology can be applied to longitudinal language testing research that seeks to reverse epistemic injustices and educational inequalities in Fiji and other comparable multilingual countries.

To explore how the Grounded Theory Methodology can be applied to longitudinal language testing research that seeks to reverse epistemic injustices and educational inequalities in Fiji and other comparable multilingual countries. The study was conducted at a university in Fiji where 120 students were sampled at the beginning of the first year and at the end of their first year of university programme. The same cohort was tracked throughout the project, out of which 30 students were interviewed at the end of the first year.

The four indicators include: (1) lack of teaching and learning resources, (2) language barriers, (3) problems with the medium of instruction and (4) shortage of experienced teachers.

Although widely acknowledged in previous studies from elsewhere, the indicators of educational inequalities identified in this study are worth reporting on due to the unique socio-cultural and linguistic context of Fiji.

Management development programmes (MDPs) are crucial to developing Pacific island countries. Programme designers must understand the region which comprises thousands of islands spread many miles apart. These countries are influenced by their history of colonial occupation and protection by the British, Germans and Americans. Fiji is unique, being an independent republic and the largest, wealthiest and most influential South Pacific country. Native languages are many, but English is commonly used throughout for government and business – except in French Polynesia. The native population is mainly Polynesian and Melanesian, with a significant minority being Micronesian. Each society has distinct customs, languages and behaviours modified by its national affiliation and geographical location. Early MDPs were modelled on western practices. In the 1990s, MDPs conform to the objectives of aid‐granting agencies, their content is oriented towards practical application of management skills, and instruction is conducted observing cultural behaviours and norms

The purpose of this paper is to identify and gain recent insights into the extent to which skills expectation gap exists from the perspective of employers in a Pacific Island country, including the competencies perceived essential within the work context of accountants and the support provided by employers to accounting graduates to address the skills expectation gap.

Using the expectation–performance gap framework developed by Bui and Porter (2010), this study collects and analyses data via semi-structured interviews with employers at chartered accounting firms, large- and medium-sized commercial and industrial firms in Fiji.

Majority of the employers indicated that graduates from the Fijian universities are adequately prepared and have acquired the necessary attributes to perform at the workplace. However, employers expect universities to do a little more in terms of developing confidence and improving ability to apply theoretical knowledge to practice. The findings also outline that the institutional-, social- and student-related constraints directly affect the quality of graduates, which are not in control of academics.

It is noted that graduate capabilities are developed over two different learning environments. This study focused on how universities prepared graduates to perform at the workplace from the perspective of employers. This serves as a basis for future research to investigate effectiveness of trainings provided by employers to graduates to enable them into becoming successful accounting professionals.

This study adds clarifications to the debate on academic–practice gap by providing recent insights into the extent to which graduates demonstrate capabilities to perform in the accounting profession, the prevailing issues with graduate capabilities and the employers’ contribution towards strengthening graduate capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions likely to arise in Pacific Island countries resulting from their high‐population growth rates and poor agricultural productivity growth, the difficulties of accessing land for commercial purposes, the rapid rate of rural‐urban migration, the relatively high numbers of poorly educated, unemployed youth, and the political instability in several of these countries.

The approach of the paper is essentially conceptual, linking cultural, economic, and political arguments. There is some review of the relevant literature relating to these aspects of societal behaviour in these countries.

The Pacific Island countries face significant difficulties in achieving economic development, particularly those arising from the tension between their cultural characteristics and commercialization of their economies.

For example, this paper points to the limitations of efforts to develop indigenous businesses in the traditional sector or to increase agricultural productivity in the traditional sector in Pacific Island economies. It also points to the need to focus much more attention on the local government issues arising from the rapid rural‐urban migration. It also points to other areas whether government attention should be focused such as youth unemployment.

This paper is original in its development of the interactions between the cultural and economic characteristics of traditional Pacific Island societies.

The Fijian LGBTQI+ movement has significantly grown, shaped around a more significant Pacific identity. The participation of queer activists from the Indo-Fijian community, which represents about 35% of Fiji’s population, is limited, and the struggles, needs, and aspirations of this LGBTQI+ community are mainly invisible. This invisibility is framed within Fiji’s political conflicts. However, there is also a form of self-censorship due to cultural and religious barriers, as well as to dynamics that speak about the trauma of the indentured system and postcolonial violence. Contemporaneously, non-political spaces provide avenues for visibility. While some Indo-Fijian religious contexts welcome gender and sexual diversity forms, these are becoming visible aided by popular social media platforms and Bollywood cinema’s influence. This project explores the dynamics of the Indo-Fijian queer community within Fiji and its broader LGBTQI+ movement, aiming to identify barriers specific to their community and strategies for recognition, visibility, and participation in advocacy and activism. The project is approached as activist research and includes interviews and group discussions with Indo-Fijians self-identifying LGBTQI+.

The way theory is used and developed in qualitative research has been a controversial issue, since theory provides a filter through which qualitative data are interpreted, and the “story” is told. This paper aims to present a study of the Fiji Development Bank (FDB) that demonstrates the impact a different theoretical lens has on the selection and interpretation of events, the story that is produced, and the unique view of the role of accounting within its social context.

This paper examines two possible interpretations of the FDB's role under the magnifying glass of Llewellyn's five levels of theorising and the world‐view of the researchers.

An analysis of the use of theory and the level of theorising brings to light the difference theory makes to the story that unfolds. On the one hand, accounting is seen as a tool of a repressive system, an example of the outworking of a grand theory, and on the other hand, while no grand theory is overtly employed, the FDB is viewed as a unifying catalyst for the coexistence of two apparently contradictory social institutions.

This interpretation of the role and effect of theory in qualitative research is unique and contestable, but forms part of the debate that is a necessary part of the advancement of academic knowledge.

Llewellyn's claim that higher level theory develops from lower levels of theorising is challenged, and the assertion is made that grand theory is employed not as the culmination of a theoretical hierarchy, but because of the presence of a preconceived world‐view which informs the choice of theory at every level.

The results of the 1999 and 2001 general election seem to suggest that the Indo‐Fijian community in Fiji voted on the issues of poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunities amongst the Indo‐Fijian community. The Indo‐Fijian community, since the military coups of 1987 and more recently in May 2000, has increasingly felt marginalised by the Indigenous Fijian led governments. The expiry of land leases and the lack of opportunities for many of them in both the rural and urban areas are a source of increasing concern. Indian politicians are also raising these concerns in their struggle for political and economic rights for the community. Based on a national survey data this article examines some of these concerns. It analyses the extent of concern about poverty, unemployment and lack of basic facilities such as water, housing and electricity among the community and draws conclusion for the future of Indo‐Fijian political and economic rights.