Uni Of New Caledonia To Elect Its First Chancellor

University Of New Caledonia To Elect Its First Chancellor

NOUMEA, April 27 (OFO) - The University of New Caledonia, one year after its official inception, is to elect its first Chancellor on May 10, daily newspaper Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes reports on Wednesday.

Last June, 1999, what was then known as the Université Française du Pacifique with one antenna in New Caledonia and another one in French Polynesia because Université de Nouvelle-Calédonie in New Caledonia and Université de Polynésie in French Polynesia.

An interim administrator, Paul de Dekker, was then appointed.

De Dekker, a former anthropology professor who is now one of the two candidates, also had at the time to draft a constitution and form a Board for the newly-born institution.

The other candidate, Claudet Chauvet, is also a scholar, a biology professor in charge of the university's marine biology lab.

Now that the board was formed and the constitution adopted, the provisional management formula had become obsolete and a chairman/chancellor is required to take the lead, the University said.

Both candidates, in statements published in Les Nouvelles, said they believed in spite of its small size the University of New Caledonia, which is still connected to the authority of the French education ministry, had the potential to provide quality tertiary education while retaining specifics of the Pacific region.

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