International projects
Nārua
Nārua was born from an unprecedented consultation of UPF’s communities & partners that identified a strong concern for academic success & professionalization of the training offered to Polynesians, on a territory marked by multi-insularity & remoteness, that appears as a demonstrator of current transitions.
UPF is committed to a structuring transformation involving the Government of French Polynesia, which is investing resources for a project that will have an impact on Polynesian development.
In this approach,UPF also associates its whole ecosystem on the territory involving research organizations (CNRS, Ifremer,IRD), and socio-economic actors (Maritime Cluster, FrenchTech, …), but also beyond the territory with keyactors of the Pacific area. Nārua will be implemented in 8 years, and will consist of 3 main axes and an enabling condition:
- Transforming our undergraduate education
- Building capacities for sustainable development & impact in multi-insular territories
- UPF as a lighthouse in the Pacific area and as a multilingual university
- Enabling condition: accelerating organizational transformation
Such an approach will involve lifelong learning, through research-based executive training adapted to the needs of public and private managers in French Polynesia. Nārua is fundamentally oriented towards a service offered to society, by providing expertise to Polynesian policy-makers, and to any territory concerned by insularity, remoteness, or more widely sustainable development issues.
Reinforcing the UPF’s connection with its territory also means highlighting its unique identity as a multilingual university at the heart of the Pacific, as a francophone institution structuring relations with key regions of the Pacific area (Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia), and promoting the heritage of Polynesian languages & cultures.
Lastly, Nārua will set up the conditions to enable this transformation, through specific change-management support. Nārua is conceived as an essential piece of French Polynesia’s development strategy, and is closely linked with a coherent set of structuring projects: Archipels connectés for digital access to education in Polynesian islands; Nāhiti, to be proposed to the French Outre-Mer Innovation Program for a structuration of innovation; and Polynesia’s Smart specialization strategy (S4+). Its timeline is fully aligned with UPF’s upcoming strategic plan (Horizon 2030), and with its Hcéres process that will involve a reconfiguration of its courses framework, with a submission of new mock-ups in March 2023, an implementation starting in September 2024 and a follow-up milestone in 2027.
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