3 Fijians awarded with Academic Achiever Awards from NZ universities

Each student has a story of undaunted determination to achieve both personal and academic excellence.

This was evident after not one but three of Fiji’s very own were awarded for the first time with the 2016 Academic Achiever Awards from their New Zealand universities.

These are annual awards given to the highest-performing New Zealand Pacific Scholarship students from each New Zealand educational institution.  

The Academic Achiever Awards have been around for several years now but this is the first time for any Fiji student to be recipients of the award.

The three awardees from Fiji are Sargam Goundar, Atish Chand and Vakaruru Cavuilati from the University of Otago, Lincoln University and the University of Canterbury respectively.

Sargam Goundar has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts while Atish Chand is currently undertaking Master of Management in Agribusiness and Vakaruru Cavuilati is doing Master of Health Sciences Programme from their NZ Universities.

New Zealand High Commissioner to Fiji Mark Ramsden says that the New Zealand Pacific Scholarship Award is designed to motivate and celebrate academic success among our New Zealand Pacific Scholarship students.

The award is offered by MFAT but nominations are done by their NZ universities.

In 2016 there were 24 Fijian students studying in New Zealand under the Scholarships Programme.