Established in 1968, the University of the South Pacific (USP) with 14 campuses spread across 12 member countries in the Pacific Ocean is the premier provider of tertiary education in the Pacific islands region. USP has become a global brand with uniRank placing it amongst the Top 50 universities in Oceania and in the top 9% globally.

For over 50 years, USP has made distinct contributions in research, innovation, learning, teaching and community engagement with members and through strong global partners in the education and development sectors.  
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Its partnership with ONOC is through several innovative avenues. Through the USP Library, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and ONOC via the Olympic Solidarity Programme, have supported the establishment and operations of the Oceania Sport Information Centre, (OSIC) a knowledge hub for sports information. OSIC is a programme of ONOC hosted at USP and co-supported by both USP and ONOC.

Koini Vuli (FIJ) and Kiali Molu (TUV) are inaugural scholarship recipients in the programme. Koini is doing research on gender norms as challenges to women's rugby and Kiali is researching sport as a critical mechanism for Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) achieving SDG targets.

Through the USP Research and Internationalisation Office, ONOC supports the Pacific Regional Sports Research Scholarship (PRSRS), a postgraduate programme encouraging the dissection of sport in the fields of economics, sociology, physical education, and politics and international affairs. More on the cohort of scholarship recipients can be found here and scholarship details which are periodically advertised can be found here.
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ONOC partners with USP through its School of Pacific Arts, Communications and Education (SPACE) under the new 2021 restructure. Previously, and in partnerships which continue, two entities within SPACE worked in separate ways with ONOC - the School of Journalism and the School of Education. ONOC provides Sports Communication Internships to USP Journalism programme students through attachments focused on research and capacity-building via its Communications Department.

USP student, Jared Koli (SOL) completed a Journalism Internship with the ONOC Communications & Visibility Department in 2020. His colleague Ben Bilua also completed the internship.

It also partners with the USP School of Education, now the Education programme, through strong and active promotion of its Physical Education programme by dissemination of all programmes and initiatives through its networks and channels. The USP Education programme works closely with ONOC’s Oceania Sport Education Programme (OSEP).
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The ONOC-USP partnership is also critical in the current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, USP offered the Information Technology Services package for the successful delivery of the 40th Annual General Assembly. Given both USP and ONOC have had to utilise IT in communicating across the region from early stages of their operations and programming, this is an area currently being explored for strengthening toward efficiency, reach to members, and cost-effectiveness. 
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USP Member Countries include Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Samoa. It runs multiple programmes and courses for its 12 Member Countries and for international students with an interest in studying in the Pacific and more information can be accessed here.

For more information on the USP partnership, please contact the following ONOC staff: