Regeneration International’s Partnership With the South Seas University

The Regeneration International Academy, in partnership with the South Seas University, has held two online courses on regenerative agriculture.

This semester, we are expanding the course to include agroecology and organic agriculture with the title of AROA (Agroecology, Regenerative, and Organic Agriculture). Bringing these three major global movements together as complementary systems is essential. Very importantly, this is a certificate course from an accredited degree-granting university. We plan to have the organic regenerative agriculture faculty offer a range of courses by recognized experts in regenerative, organic, and agroecological practices and systems in the following semesters.

Most people know me as a long-term organic farmer and the international director of Regeneration International. I have decades of teaching experience, communication and adult education degrees, and a Doctorate in Environmental and Agricultural Systems. I have taught and lectured in tertiary institutions on most continents and developed and run many types of courses. These include training courses for farmers, some delivered in institutions and others on farms at farmers’ shed meetings.

I have had the opportunity to use the title of adjunct (part-time) professor for decades; however, I have only chosen to use it now. The current course I have developed in partnership with South Seas University is the most important of all the courses I have developed and taught.

From experience, I have learned that developing innovative courses in most long-established tertiary institutions is very hard. They like conformity to traditional norms and do not like taking risks. The academic mainstream largely ignores and denigrates our agricultural systems. As an organic farmer, teaching in standard agronomy courses offered by most institutions meant being ostracized and marginalized by the academic staff and management for criticizing the mainstream paradigms of toxic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.

South Seas University (SSU) has a history of innovation, so when I was offered the opportunity to form a department of organic and regenerative agriculture, I jumped at it.

SSU was founded with a vision to provide quality education at an affordable cost, leveraging innovative technology and cooperation with the world’s leading academic institutions. It came about after political upheaval in the Dominican Republic in 1997-1998 caused numerous universities and medical schools to close. Aspiring medical professionals found themselves at the mercy of unscrupulous individuals exploiting their desperation.

Under the leadership of Sir Tom Davis, Dr. Reza Chowdhury, and Lady Carla Davis, the Board worked tirelessly to raise the necessary funds to fill the gap for these students left by the loss of their medical schools and to provide affordable degrees.  By 1999, SSU gained registration with the Government of the Cook Islands as a degree-granting university. The James Cook School of Medicine (JCSM) was registered as the SSU Faculty of Medicine. It was listed in the WHO World Directory of Medical Schools and other licensing authorities. The first cohort of displaced students from the Dominican Republic formed the inaugural class at JCSM. This accomplishment provided SSU’s JCSM graduates with U.S. board exam registration eligibility. It also affirmed the quality and credibility of their education.