Dear editor,

please allow me space to clarify Mae's respond to my previous letter on students' performance and sponsor. Communication link with the sponsor is so important with studies. If there is no proper communication link, then the sponsor will not feel, experience and see what the students are facing. The sponsors are the ones who the students will look for when issues arise beyond university's capabilities affect studies. One of such example is the allowance and perfomance that reflect on the grades. These things are linked, and the sponsor must see the way students see it, thus it need a good communication link.

I see the NTU like parents who pay the school fees of their children. Whatever the children see as interruption to studies that are within the parents' capabilities, then they will have to discuss with them. They are the ones who pay the fees and must discuss often of how they can help their children to overcome hardship they encounter with their studies. Maybe Mae just wanted to tell that we, in the USP should not complain because of low level of study, compared to universities he attended in New Zealand and Australia which studies are tough. Well, lucky for such person, but such comparation is unsuitable. I remember in the past when we apply for one foreign scholarship in the Solomon Islands and those who score good grades are selected to study abroad, while the others are to study at USP. So the best students are sent to Australia and New Zealand in which if studies there are much tougher, then that is why the best students are selected. And if they are sent back home, then maybe they are the ones who do a lot with the social life and culture shock as well.

In addition, maybe students studying here in Fiji are very known back home for too much social life like clubbing. Over 900 Solomon Islanders are here in Suva only, and social life cannot be deny as part of life. People used it as relaxing after hard day of work. So maybe these hundreds of students go clubbing in different times in a year causing people to see them as Solomon Islanders are clubbing a lot, and not concentrated with studies. If only 50 or 100 Solomon Islanders are here in Suva, then maybe it will be clear that social life is not very often. Therefore, Mae must not look at the hardship we in Fiji are facing by comparation to other institutions, and also writing his letter with mind preoccupied by poor perfomance of the students is solely related to too much social life. Tagio tumas.