(This is the August episode of a series of blog posts. Here is the first, published in July)
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls ..." (Robert F. Kennedy)
In this perspective, Universities must at least assure their graduates are 'work ready', in order to stay relevant for the societies they serve, and be worthy of the large grants of tax payers' money they often receive from government. The private sector is supposed to train them further to make them suitable for specific jobs, or 'job ready'. Work ready graduates are expected to be sustainably employed during their life time.
In addition, universities should assure students have an adequate understanding of their society, and can play a role as active citizens or leaders. Students should not keep quiet in face of injustice or when state institutions are dismantled or corrupted. In this sense, student activism and liberal democracy are a natural best match. Universities are the breeding ground of the next generation of leaders, and therefore being able to lead and strenghten state institutions are fundamental for a country's development. Sometimes this involves cleaning up the mess that one's predecessors left.
Relevant and true universities normally adhere to a set of common principles involving the freedom of inquiry, the inseparable nature of teaching and research, and the involvement of students in university governance, such as outlined in, for example, the Magna Charta Universitatum.
In particular, I will highlight those positive actions of the students and a few alumni, who from 2012 to 2016 as a group to always have pushed for real university reform, hoping that the ripple of good actions they created, would turn into a stream. In 2012, these hopes were high.
PNG universities had been founded in colonial times as Australian universities, and were presented as a gift to the newly independent state in 1975. Given the history of almost annual violent student protests and staff strikes, however, one can ask whether this gift was not a Trojan horse. The concept of a university operating under the law, producing employable and competent graduates, offering opportunies for personal development and promoting active citizenship, remains utterly foreign.
Hence successive governments continue to see universities exclusively as part of the political system and a source of patronage. They can not respect institutional autonomy, the freedom of inquiry, or academic freedom. It is no coincidende that since 1975, all foreign (white) Vice Chancellors - who were a product of the western university traditions - at some point have been threatened, blackmailed, insulted, and finally expelled from the country. The year 2018, in that sense was only exceptional in the sense that 2 instead of 1 Vice chancellor were pushed out by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and some of his associates.
In this year, both the European Vice Chancellor of UNITECH, as well as the one from UNRE, were expelled in the period of frentic nervousness before the APEC meetings when the government knew the eyes of the world were upon the country, and China's favours had to be strongly courted at the expense of everything else, especially due process and decency.
Regrettably, since independence Universities have been structurally underfunded and run down and, as a result by 2012 these powerful instittuions to produce competent and employable graduates who contribute to nation building, were totally dysfunctional and practically rendered unusable. At UNITECH, for example, in 2012 there was no functioning internet and none of the laboratories, forest nursery, farm or any other potential teaching environments could be used to effectively teach students. Instead, these facilities were being used by some staff for personal benefit. Any prattical training, for example, invariably involved a "field trip", usually to the far away home province of the lecturer. This is the comfortable state of affairs for entitled university staff, when there is no effective leadership nor management.
In 2010, the Independent Review of the PNG University System (IRUS), called the Namaliu/Garnaut report after its main authors, made two key recommendations: reform University Councils and improve academic quality before anything else. The PNG government promised to invest the revenue from the new LNG projects improving the education system, among which the universities. These recommendations were approved by government in June 2012, and as Vice Chancellor it was my duty to facilitate their realisation with appropriate measures in the context of UNITECH, while upholding the provisions of the University Act.
It was not to be, and the events of 2016 proved to be a watershed, after which everything went into reverse again. Due to the violent repression of the protests against Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in 2016, the subsequent political interventions by the PM and some members of his circle, and the violence on the University campuses of all public universities, the University Councils decided to suspend the Student Representative Councils (SRC) indefinitely. As a result, the voice of the students, which in the past was the only voice from civil society in the country powerful enough to force a government into making any concessions was silenced, probably forever.
Here is the story how some short-sighted and self-interested members of the government of Peter O'Neill in cahoots with the worse elements among the university Council, staff and Faculty, managed a 'palace coup' and stop all necessary university reforms, probably for the next 10 years. The consequences are to be born by the students: they are still not getting a true university education, and they will continue to be unemployable as university graduates.
Creating a real student-centred University is what I had in mind, and what I had experienced at Maastricht University in the Netherlands (ranked 5th in the world in the Times Higher Education ranking of young universities), for example, where I worked for 4 years responsible for a research grant portfolio of over $40 million.
When Sir Nagora Bogan was appointed as Chancellor in November 2012, I immediately found agreement with him on the matter of a focus on the employability of graduates. In fact, he said something to the effect of "Vice Chancellor, I am not an education man, but you have to provide the leadership so that UNITECH graduates are highly employable". His experience as diplomat had given him a broader vision than other Council members, and his activities as professional board director meant he understood well what the private sector needs.
I believe in 2014 our shared focus on employability of university graduates was the main reason he endorsed the findings of the Sevua Investigation into the practices of the former Univeristy Council and management, stating there was nothing wrong with my academic credentials or appointment process, and I have to be given a chance to exercise my Vice Chancellorship.
After my return from exile in 2014, I started by collecting evidence and in 2015, 2016 and 2017 I held graduate surveys at the graduation ceremony in April among those students who had graduated in November. It turned out that after 6 months only 40% of graduates were employed. In comparison for Universities in Fiji this is 60% and in industrialized countries this is abot 90%. This is a key metric, and everything should be done to make sure this number goes up.
Since then the Council members and senior staff at UNITECH have thwarted any attempt to indict the former Council members and management, although there was more than enough prima facie evidence to do so. What is even harder for me to understand how in 2018 Chancellor Bogan reversed himself completely in my regard, but most importantly failed to support the employability agenda for UNITECH's graduates.
As expected, however, after my departure in 2018 these surveys were discontinued, because the current management and Council could not care less about UNITECH students or graduates. Now they are blaming the students for being unemployed, and in rambling graduation speeches tell them to try harder. Frankly, I can not understand how students put up with these insults and shirking of responsibility. The current management is not even trying to provide them with competent lecturers with a terminal (PhD) degree, and are not providing them with an adequate learning environment with internet and functioning teaching laboratories or an adequate library.
Regrettably, this is a story with only very few heroes: the alumni who never betrayded their university, and those graduates, who were taken in by international companies which offer excellent training opportunities, and those we helped to get scholarship abroad.
In my office, we were always ready to provide a letter of recommendation, after checking a student's disciplinary and academic records. We also made special arrangements with universities in Australia and India for recent graduates students to receive scholarships to do their Masters and PhD. In the past, these were exclusively given to senior Faculty, who consequently would receive their PhD in their late 40s, which is of little use if you want to build up an academic department.
They told me incredible stories. UNITECH graduates would present themselves at job interviews with an impressive list of subjects and grades, but often when queried were unable to answer the simplest questions. Moreover, they had no idea about feasible career paths, and tended to exhibit a huge sense of entitlement and overestimation of their own capacities and value added. After all, the competences of somebody with a mere Bachelor degree are barely sufficient to exercise any profession independently, and nowadays a Masters degree is required.
The impression of insufficient competences of UNITECH graduates was confirmed by conversations with board members or people with access to the boards of, for example, Newcrest - an Australian mining company with 2 operating mines in PNG -, and ExxonMobil, which operates the country's only LNG project. As is my habit, I reported in detail about the content of all of my meetings to all members of the management team, and the Registrar as secretary of Council. I thought they understood the potential for obtaining major support from both PNG enterprises, as well as foreign companies. Now I wonder if they ever read my reports, although certainly they did not understand them.
It was sad for me to hear from both these companies Newcrest and ExxonMobil, that often they preferred to hire people straight from high school or directly from the village, rather than UNITECH graduates, who often suffered from an inflated sense of self, and exhibitd attitudinal issues. Local entrepreneurs were less diplomatic. One of them asked me publicly: "Vice Chancellor, why is it that your graduates are unable to do anything?" I was so happy to hear these comments, because if you can name the core of the problem you can find the solution. It was clear to me, however, that I had to widen this conversations, and in 2015 and 2017 I managed to hold monthly industry breakfasts with UNITECH departmental industrial training coordinators attending.
All these meaningful conversations can not be held over the phone or skype, and involve building a degree of trust. Alumni are a University's strongest assets, and their support has been essential for everything we did. When possible they took place in Lae, but at times we had to travel to Cairns, Sydney or Melbourne. Whenever I had meetings outside Lae, I would file a full mission report with the Registrar within 2 weeks after my return. In fact this was one of the conditions for being reimbursed. I tried to impose this discipline on my colleagues, without much success however.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor Ora Renagi was in charge of organizing the alumni with the PR office. In 4 years, he did not manage to set up the association of organize a single event. Only when I had left, did he make an attempt, which however largely failed.
Later, I was criticized for traveling too much, and the Registrar even implied I made things up. In fact 70 out of 254 work days, about 30% which is normal for a Vice Chancellor, and little considering that Lae is a remote location. What is more astounding is that Council and government members are so gullible that they believe self-serving lies from envious and selfish senior staff and management.
In 2012, for the first time in years, we had been able to hold the annual Career Fair and Open Day on campus, which are important events to allow recruiters to talk with students, and to increase engagement of the students. In 2013, when I was in forced exile, these events had been discontinued, but upon my return we started them again, and I started to make them more meaningful and effective.
In particular, the ongoing conversations with ExxonMobil were promising, with Newcrest focusing more on the Lae National Polytechnic, setting up a process of academic improvement in which we took active part. From the outset, it was made clear to us that if we implemented true academic improvements leading to professional accreditation of our programs, and got our finances in order, ExxonMobil could go a long way in supporting UNITECH. In fact, until in 2017 we obtained an unqualified audit of our accounts from the Auditor General's office, they supported the University mostly in kind, by giving a large GenSet to deal with the persistent power problems, a large server, countless computers and laptops, laboratory equipment etc. I was very grateful for this support.
Most importantly concerning the employability of graduates, we were able to set up the "Industrial Advisory Board" (IAB) with participation of all major foreign and national industries. This was part of the accreditation process for the engineering programs as per the Washington Accords. I was also able to ensure the advice and cooperation of the experienced Dean of Engineering of James Cook University at the time, who is an old friend of mine from my days at the University of Utrecht.
International professional accreditation is the key process driving the transformation of UNITECH and the delivery of a modern, competence focused curriculum. Today, it is simply not good enough when the Vice Chancellor prounces around saying his University's programs are "world class". International accreditation assures that an independent body visits the university, interviews all stakeholders, including students, and assesses the progams against international standards. It is distinct from "provisional accreditation" which is based on a promise by the University to do better.
Though I continued to monitor progress, I delegated this responsibility for professional accreditations to Dr. Augustine Moshi, the Pro Vice Chancellor Academic. In 2017, however, the members of the IAB made me aware there was insufficient progress, and therefore suggested I intervene. Dr. Moshi had made a hash of things, and believed that sending polite emails to the departments would actually change things on the ground. After complaints by several IAB members about Dr. Moshi lack of commitment and execution skills, I established some hard deadlines at the IAB meeting, but regrettably before those dates were reached, I had already been pushed out. The best chance to achieve even professional accreditation of one or more engineering programs had thus been lost.
In this members of my management team resembled the incompetent generals of the First World War, who send communications from a safe place dozens of miles behind the trenches, never understanding what was really going on. I tried to make them more aware by instituting a 'walk around' schedule for them, but this did not change their mindsets. When our executive team coach pointed out after 2 years that the members of my management team had not achieved a single of the objectives they set for themselves in their key performance areas, I should have replaced them with capable people. Regrettably it was too late, and they had already set up a whisper campaign against me with the Chancellor and Council members in a blatant attempt to mask their own incompetence.
In order to achieve the overall transformation of the University, a strong focus on the reform of the University Council and restructuring of the university's personnel, as well as on outcomes of academic improvement programs had to be kept. As to this first goal, I must admit with hindsight that we failed. The main reason was that the members of the management team and senior staff, who said they were committed to this transformation, found it too foreign to their beliefs, and too hard and so simply gave up. You can not drive the transformation of a University into a modern, rule-based organization, if you cling to an mediocrity mindset based on "this is how we do things around here".
As to the latter, many academic improvements were effectively implemented, although today the focus has shifted again, and the interests of the administrative staff and Faculty members again prevails upon those of the students. The University Council in 2017 instead of asking for accountability, chose the side of mediocrity and the status quo.
She has been in cahoots with Ralph Saulep, the former disgraced Pro Chancellor, who in 2018 was the one who paid the police offers to harass me, and in 2012 even sent his bodyguards waving their guns after my vehicle in Port Moresby. Even after January 2019, when all false allegations were thrown out by the courts for lack of evidence, Kekedo has refused to apologize or eliminate all the baseless accusations as published on the internet. A real class act.
Her power stems from being tapped into numerous gossip networks and knowing a lot of dirt on politicians. To my surprise, for example, she told several council members quite publicly in a break during a council meeting, how she had found Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in bed with Mrs. Ni the chair of the Chinese association and wife of a friend of his, while inspecting the presidential suite at the Airways hotel in preparation for the visit of Prince Charles - nambawan pikinini bilong misis kwin - in 2012. I am just relaying a story she volunteered to tell to myself, the UNITECH management team and at least a handful of other Council members. It is amazing how Peter O'Neill accepts her as an ally, while she openly dishes out the dirt about him.
Mrs. Kekedo herself is unimaginably gullible, unable to distinguish between truth and fiction, and believes all gossip staff tell her. She seldom writes anything down, and I found out she never reads or understands any reports either. She is based in Kokoda, does not know how to use the internet, and usually does not read or send emails.
She would tell amazing stories she heard about my driver, for example. Meanwhile, in all these years when she was on Council, she successfully blocked all efforts to prosecute the criminals in the previous Council, and blocked Council reform successfully.
She is also in the habit of disauthorizing the Vice Chancellor, and believes she runs the University. In my case, she never hesitated to publish a series of slanderous lies in the newspaper, and on the internet, for which she has never taken down these web publication or apologized to me after they were all proven false in the courts, as they had been earlier in 2013 in the Sevua Investigation report.
Given Kekedo's reputation and behaviour it is a complete disgrace that she was appointed as Chancellor by the Government of Peter O'Neill. I can only imagine why this happened. Chancellor Bogan should never have allowed her to become his successor, and reverse all good progress achieved under his own Chancellorship. Lack of succession policies and accoutability for results has reversed progress at UNITECH, and continue the boycott culture and tradition of often violent campus protests.
When I came to UNITECH the first time in 2011, I was appalled to see that some department and the University administration, had set up tiny windows behind bars through which students could ask for information. When I became Vice Chancellor, I ordered all these bars removed, which in fact happened in the teaching departments but not in the University administration. I quickly discovered that students were seen by the staff as a nuisance, and addressed as "children". There was a complete failure to understand the essential role University students must play in university governance in management.
As I mentioned above, the excellent university governance system inherited from the Australian colonial period, is based on the concept of dual governance and shared governance. Dual governance means academic freedom and freedom of inquiry is protected by having two separate boards of equal importance: the University Council which deals with all financial and corporate strategic matters, and the Academic Board which deals with all academic matters. The Vice Chancellor roles it to execute the decisions of both boards, and assure there is harmony between them. At UNITECH this is made easier with the Vice Chancellor being the chair of the Academic Board.
Conversely, the University Council is chaired by a Chancellor, who has not executive powers and is NOT 'the boss' of the University. As per the University Act of 1986 (never revised), he or she is merely the ceremonial head of the University and chairs the Council meetings. In PNG this role is most often misunderstood, but it is essential that the Vice Chancellor be free in exercising his or her executive powers, and is then subsequently held accountable by Council. If the roles are confused, nobody ends up being responsible, and proper leadership can not be provided.
Now as to the students, they have meaningful representation - one male and one female - in both the University Council and Academic Board, as well as the relevant 40+ committees where the operationally important decisions are taken. When there were honest SRC presidents like Joe Kaowai in 2012, Eddy Nagual in 2014, Richard Mabiria in 2015, we cooperate well and assured students understood the issues and were able to participate meaningfully. Apart from the statutory obligations, I am convinced the PNG universities need more than less students involved in governance. In fact, with a small grant in 2012, we were able to organize a workshop on leadership for all the countries SRCs with a small grant from Australian aid program. Regrettably, it proved impossible to repeat this experience in 2014 and following years.
When I observed the scant understanding of university governance, the disregard for the voice of the students, and the continual efforts of government to intervene in the appointment of management but also of professors, I decided was important to assure the UNITECH receive support in sticking to its fundamental and constituting principles. For this reason, in order to save university money, during my annual leave on behalf of UNITECH I signed the Magna Charta Universitatum in Bologna, the oldest University in the world, thus becoming the first PNG university to do so.
Apart from these formal mechanisms of constant consultation and involvement of the students in university governance, I created a few informal ones. First, it made it known that after 4 pm, student leaders but also individual students could ask an appointment with me, which I would give the first day. Similarly, Head of Departments could ask between 8 am and 9 am, but they seldom did. The students however came regularly, and often I was able to help them by taking a few simple measures. Of course, the Registrar Veronica Thomas and her closest underlings were always appalled by the idea that a Vice Chancelor would talk to students, because they wanted to keep me from knowing what was really going on. I came to PNG however to serve the students, not the staff. The staff is supposed to implement the decisions of the Vice Chancellors office, not the other way around.
In addition, the last Friday of each month we had management forum with the students and staff. A forum does not have a fixed membership so the students could bring whoever they wanted. Regrettably, after 2016 when some students had been radicalized by their provincial politicians, and SRC leadership faltered, distrust crept in and these meetings became less productive. Moreover, my colleagues in the management and least of all the Registrar would always avoid attending these meetings.
It was mostly through these informal mechanisms that I became aware the students to their credit demanded better lecturers, world class programs, library internet, in short all basic aspects of a modern University. They understood the world is changing fast, and having a fake degree without any content is not in their best interest.
As a consequence of the 4th industrial revolution, which we are living now, the role of knowledge and in parallel the role of education become increasingly important. Professionals nowadays are expected to have at least a Masters degree. Regrettably, in PNG the state does not sponsor post-graduate degrees, and the universities are still struggling to assure graduates have the required competences and are employable.
It is therefore vital that universities adapt to the increasing speed of change around them to assure their graduates remain highly employable. Regrettably, University governance is set up for a sedate "community of scholars" and it is hard to drive necessary changes through a university organization. Only by involving students in a meaningful way can we assure universities keep pace with the rest of society, and deliver a modern, competence based curriculum. I never stopped trying to improve the academic programs, but in the end I seem to have been the only one, except for the students who know it is in their own best interest.
My experiences at UNITECH demonstrate that if students themselves don't take action on the matter of university reform, demanding qualified lecturers, adequate learning environments, functioning laboratories, efficient management of operations, and internationally accredited programs, the current Council and management will not do anything for them. UNITECH is not a true university, and its main purpose at the moment is to serve its staff, some of whom feel entitled to life time salary without any accountability or professional performance.
After reading my experiences, one can conclude PNG has wasted 10 years by not implementing the recommendations of the Namaliu/Garnaut report, and will probably waste another 10 years with the notoriously corrupt and illegitimate Peter O'Neill government having just apointed Chancellors and Vice Chancellors in all public universities, and expelled the two foreign Vice Chancellors.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world moves on: the University of the South Pacific with Council support and good leadership, for example, in 2012 had no internationally accredited programs, while in 2017 it had over two dozen programs with international accreditation. Their employment rate 6 months after graduation is 60% and growing, while UNITECH remains 40% and not growing. Moreover, many UNITECH graduates are not employed as graduates but as clerks or technicians.
It is sad that in this story there are no heroes. I managed to achieve a lot of academic quality improvements in the 6 years I was Vice Chancellor, and it has been a pleasure and honour to serve the bright UNITECH students. It is sad, however, that the necessary university council reform, and personnel restructuring was blocked by a few ignorant, selfish, and spiteful individuals.
The negative internal dynamics, brought the university back to where it started. As a result, I was unable to achieve international professional accreditation of one or more engineering programs, necessary to produce highly employable graduates. The best chance for UNITECH students to receive a real university education, and be employed as graduates during their professional career was wasted.
References
CHEPS (https://www.utwente.nl/en/) & CHEGG (http://www.chegg.ugent.be/) and DZHW (https://www.dzhw.eu/) successfully concluded the study “Promoting the Relevance of Higher Education: Trends, Approaches and Policy Levers“ http://bit.ly/33spWu6
Background Readings
Dr. Albert Schram Official PhD Record:
http://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/5972
Cambridge University Press book: http://www.cambridge.org/it/academic/subjects/history/european-history-after-1450/railways-and-formation-italian-state-nineteenth-century?format=HB&isbn=9780521571593
UNTIECH Glassdoor Reviews by former employees:
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Papua-New-Guinea-University-of-Technology-RVW21228726.htm
Media Articles
Consternation in Italy about Vice Chancellor Schram's Unlawful Arrest (In Italian)
http://www.larena.it/docente-veronese-prigioniero-in-nuova-guinea-7.1747352
Albert Schram: My wrongful dismissal and malicious prosecution – a warning
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2018/05/29/albert-schram-my-wrongful-dismissal-and-malicious-prosecution-a-warning/
ABC Radio Interview
http://www.abc.net.au/radio-australia/programs/pacificbeat/png-schram/10282662
Times Higher Education article 1 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/former-v-c-arrested-return-papua-new-guinea
Times Higher Education article 2 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/expatriate-v-c-flees-papua-new-guinea-fearing-his-life
Times Higher Education article 3 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ousted-vice-chancellor-may-never-return-papua-new-guinea
The Australian 1 (pay wall):
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/png-vicechancellor-albert-schram-charged-with-false-pretence/news-story/27f51e82a24e9f67fddaa294dce40174
The Austalian 2 (pay wall):
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/second-foreign-vicechancellor-runs-into-strife-in-png/news-story/bbbaa39241cf2696f051b5d95f5a194b
Times Higher Education article 4 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/exiled-v-c-fights-to-return-to-papua-new-guinea/2012196.article
Minister Arore investment that never came:
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130712171327182
ANU Australian National University website:
Australian National University blog 1:
http://www.devpolicy.org/albert-schrams-arrest-20180513/
Australian National University blog 2:
http://www.devpolicy.org/papua-new-guinea-loses-another-vice-chancellor-20180820-2/
Dr. Schram's ANU lecture
https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/7612/university-reform-papua-new-guinea-unitech-experience
UNRE Case Vice Chancellor John Warren
Times Higher 1:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/expatriate-v-c-flees-papua-new-guinea-fearing-his-life
Telegraph UK 1:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/22/professor-took-cheats-forced-fleepapua-new-guinea-university/
Blog
Second Expat Vice Chancellor Goes
http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/08/second-expat-vice-chancellor-goes-png-universities-turn-nasty.html#more
VIDEO UPNG RIOT
8 June 2016 UPNG students shooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdn4VlqbmC0
& https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJtsDwkVVCU
VIDEO UNITECH RIOT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRXEBRdS1jU
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls ..." (Robert F. Kennedy)
Background
It is important to reflect on what a viable, sustainable and financially strong higher education system entails. Fundamentally, universities must show they continue to be relevant for society, or in other words are part of a societies solutions, not of its problems.In this perspective, Universities must at least assure their graduates are 'work ready', in order to stay relevant for the societies they serve, and be worthy of the large grants of tax payers' money they often receive from government. The private sector is supposed to train them further to make them suitable for specific jobs, or 'job ready'. Work ready graduates are expected to be sustainably employed during their life time.
In addition, universities should assure students have an adequate understanding of their society, and can play a role as active citizens or leaders. Students should not keep quiet in face of injustice or when state institutions are dismantled or corrupted. In this sense, student activism and liberal democracy are a natural best match. Universities are the breeding ground of the next generation of leaders, and therefore being able to lead and strenghten state institutions are fundamental for a country's development. Sometimes this involves cleaning up the mess that one's predecessors left.
Relevant and true universities normally adhere to a set of common principles involving the freedom of inquiry, the inseparable nature of teaching and research, and the involvement of students in university governance, such as outlined in, for example, the Magna Charta Universitatum.
 |
| UNITECH first PNG university signing Magna Charta Universitatum in 2015 |
Finally, in order to stay relevant universities should offer opportunities for students for personal development, to develop so-called 'soft skills', more aptly called 'essential skills', such as leadership skills, but also cross-cultural communication and team working skills.
For more information on the relevance of universities see, for example, the report by Dutch CHEPS at the University of Twente, and the Belgian CHEGG at the University of Gent.
For more information on the relevance of universities see, for example, the report by Dutch CHEPS at the University of Twente, and the Belgian CHEGG at the University of Gent.
This week we will reflect only on the first, sustainable employment part, in particular the effort intiated by myself at UNITECH to create internationally accredited engineering degrees. Next week, we will reflect on the benefits of allowing a university to create responsible citizens and how they can contribute to the personal development of its students.
In particular, I will highlight those positive actions of the students and a few alumni, who from 2012 to 2016 as a group to always have pushed for real university reform, hoping that the ripple of good actions they created, would turn into a stream. In 2012, these hopes were high.
PNG universities had been founded in colonial times as Australian universities, and were presented as a gift to the newly independent state in 1975. Given the history of almost annual violent student protests and staff strikes, however, one can ask whether this gift was not a Trojan horse. The concept of a university operating under the law, producing employable and competent graduates, offering opportunies for personal development and promoting active citizenship, remains utterly foreign.
Hence successive governments continue to see universities exclusively as part of the political system and a source of patronage. They can not respect institutional autonomy, the freedom of inquiry, or academic freedom. It is no coincidende that since 1975, all foreign (white) Vice Chancellors - who were a product of the western university traditions - at some point have been threatened, blackmailed, insulted, and finally expelled from the country. The year 2018, in that sense was only exceptional in the sense that 2 instead of 1 Vice chancellor were pushed out by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and some of his associates.
In this year, both the European Vice Chancellor of UNITECH, as well as the one from UNRE, were expelled in the period of frentic nervousness before the APEC meetings when the government knew the eyes of the world were upon the country, and China's favours had to be strongly courted at the expense of everything else, especially due process and decency.
Regrettably, since independence Universities have been structurally underfunded and run down and, as a result by 2012 these powerful instittuions to produce competent and employable graduates who contribute to nation building, were totally dysfunctional and practically rendered unusable. At UNITECH, for example, in 2012 there was no functioning internet and none of the laboratories, forest nursery, farm or any other potential teaching environments could be used to effectively teach students. Instead, these facilities were being used by some staff for personal benefit. Any prattical training, for example, invariably involved a "field trip", usually to the far away home province of the lecturer. This is the comfortable state of affairs for entitled university staff, when there is no effective leadership nor management.
In 2010, the Independent Review of the PNG University System (IRUS), called the Namaliu/Garnaut report after its main authors, made two key recommendations: reform University Councils and improve academic quality before anything else. The PNG government promised to invest the revenue from the new LNG projects improving the education system, among which the universities. These recommendations were approved by government in June 2012, and as Vice Chancellor it was my duty to facilitate their realisation with appropriate measures in the context of UNITECH, while upholding the provisions of the University Act.
It was not to be, and the events of 2016 proved to be a watershed, after which everything went into reverse again. Due to the violent repression of the protests against Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in 2016, the subsequent political interventions by the PM and some members of his circle, and the violence on the University campuses of all public universities, the University Councils decided to suspend the Student Representative Councils (SRC) indefinitely. As a result, the voice of the students, which in the past was the only voice from civil society in the country powerful enough to force a government into making any concessions was silenced, probably forever.
Here is the story how some short-sighted and self-interested members of the government of Peter O'Neill in cahoots with the worse elements among the university Council, staff and Faculty, managed a 'palace coup' and stop all necessary university reforms, probably for the next 10 years. The consequences are to be born by the students: they are still not getting a true university education, and they will continue to be unemployable as university graduates.
Highly Employable Graduates
My ideal was to transform the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (UNITECH) so that it would produce highly employable graduates, and would serve its students, their sponsors and the broader PNG society well. Employable, that is, as university graduates, not as maintenance or operations technicians as they are now by the oil & gas industry or mining sector. The former Vice Chancellor for 19+ years, Misty Baloiloi, would say that there was nothing wrong with the engineering programs at UNITECH because the graduates were employed, even by foreign companies. Yes, they were employed but as technicians, not as engineers or project engineers (for which you need a Masters degree). You can not say that you contribute to 'nation building' when your graduates are not employable as university graduates.Creating a real student-centred University is what I had in mind, and what I had experienced at Maastricht University in the Netherlands (ranked 5th in the world in the Times Higher Education ranking of young universities), for example, where I worked for 4 years responsible for a research grant portfolio of over $40 million.
When Sir Nagora Bogan was appointed as Chancellor in November 2012, I immediately found agreement with him on the matter of a focus on the employability of graduates. In fact, he said something to the effect of "Vice Chancellor, I am not an education man, but you have to provide the leadership so that UNITECH graduates are highly employable". His experience as diplomat had given him a broader vision than other Council members, and his activities as professional board director meant he understood well what the private sector needs.
I believe in 2014 our shared focus on employability of university graduates was the main reason he endorsed the findings of the Sevua Investigation into the practices of the former Univeristy Council and management, stating there was nothing wrong with my academic credentials or appointment process, and I have to be given a chance to exercise my Vice Chancellorship.
After my return from exile in 2014, I started by collecting evidence and in 2015, 2016 and 2017 I held graduate surveys at the graduation ceremony in April among those students who had graduated in November. It turned out that after 6 months only 40% of graduates were employed. In comparison for Universities in Fiji this is 60% and in industrialized countries this is abot 90%. This is a key metric, and everything should be done to make sure this number goes up.
Since then the Council members and senior staff at UNITECH have thwarted any attempt to indict the former Council members and management, although there was more than enough prima facie evidence to do so. What is even harder for me to understand how in 2018 Chancellor Bogan reversed himself completely in my regard, but most importantly failed to support the employability agenda for UNITECH's graduates.
As expected, however, after my departure in 2018 these surveys were discontinued, because the current management and Council could not care less about UNITECH students or graduates. Now they are blaming the students for being unemployed, and in rambling graduation speeches tell them to try harder. Frankly, I can not understand how students put up with these insults and shirking of responsibility. The current management is not even trying to provide them with competent lecturers with a terminal (PhD) degree, and are not providing them with an adequate learning environment with internet and functioning teaching laboratories or an adequate library.
Regrettably, this is a story with only very few heroes: the alumni who never betrayded their university, and those graduates, who were taken in by international companies which offer excellent training opportunities, and those we helped to get scholarship abroad.
In my office, we were always ready to provide a letter of recommendation, after checking a student's disciplinary and academic records. We also made special arrangements with universities in Australia and India for recent graduates students to receive scholarships to do their Masters and PhD. In the past, these were exclusively given to senior Faculty, who consequently would receive their PhD in their late 40s, which is of little use if you want to build up an academic department.
Addressing the Employability Gap
My early conversations in 2012 with prominent UNITECH alumni such as Don Polye (former Minister of Higher Education and Treasurer), Peter Loco (former PNG power CEO) and Ernie Gangloff (first PNG member of major accounting firm), made it quite clear that UNITECH graduates "only looked good on paper". Don Polye even put professional, international accreditation for UNITECH into his party's political program. From the outset, these men made an effort to meet me, even when I was in exile, talk with me, convince me, and treated me with the respect my role deserved, looking beyond my personal limitations, or looks. They also engaged directly with the students and staff, supporting the message that UNITECH needed a fundamental overhaul and transformation.They told me incredible stories. UNITECH graduates would present themselves at job interviews with an impressive list of subjects and grades, but often when queried were unable to answer the simplest questions. Moreover, they had no idea about feasible career paths, and tended to exhibit a huge sense of entitlement and overestimation of their own capacities and value added. After all, the competences of somebody with a mere Bachelor degree are barely sufficient to exercise any profession independently, and nowadays a Masters degree is required.
The impression of insufficient competences of UNITECH graduates was confirmed by conversations with board members or people with access to the boards of, for example, Newcrest - an Australian mining company with 2 operating mines in PNG -, and ExxonMobil, which operates the country's only LNG project. As is my habit, I reported in detail about the content of all of my meetings to all members of the management team, and the Registrar as secretary of Council. I thought they understood the potential for obtaining major support from both PNG enterprises, as well as foreign companies. Now I wonder if they ever read my reports, although certainly they did not understand them.
It was sad for me to hear from both these companies Newcrest and ExxonMobil, that often they preferred to hire people straight from high school or directly from the village, rather than UNITECH graduates, who often suffered from an inflated sense of self, and exhibitd attitudinal issues. Local entrepreneurs were less diplomatic. One of them asked me publicly: "Vice Chancellor, why is it that your graduates are unable to do anything?" I was so happy to hear these comments, because if you can name the core of the problem you can find the solution. It was clear to me, however, that I had to widen this conversations, and in 2015 and 2017 I managed to hold monthly industry breakfasts with UNITECH departmental industrial training coordinators attending.
All these meaningful conversations can not be held over the phone or skype, and involve building a degree of trust. Alumni are a University's strongest assets, and their support has been essential for everything we did. When possible they took place in Lae, but at times we had to travel to Cairns, Sydney or Melbourne. Whenever I had meetings outside Lae, I would file a full mission report with the Registrar within 2 weeks after my return. In fact this was one of the conditions for being reimbursed. I tried to impose this discipline on my colleagues, without much success however.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor Ora Renagi was in charge of organizing the alumni with the PR office. In 4 years, he did not manage to set up the association of organize a single event. Only when I had left, did he make an attempt, which however largely failed.
Later, I was criticized for traveling too much, and the Registrar even implied I made things up. In fact 70 out of 254 work days, about 30% which is normal for a Vice Chancellor, and little considering that Lae is a remote location. What is more astounding is that Council and government members are so gullible that they believe self-serving lies from envious and selfish senior staff and management.
In 2012, for the first time in years, we had been able to hold the annual Career Fair and Open Day on campus, which are important events to allow recruiters to talk with students, and to increase engagement of the students. In 2013, when I was in forced exile, these events had been discontinued, but upon my return we started them again, and I started to make them more meaningful and effective.
In particular, the ongoing conversations with ExxonMobil were promising, with Newcrest focusing more on the Lae National Polytechnic, setting up a process of academic improvement in which we took active part. From the outset, it was made clear to us that if we implemented true academic improvements leading to professional accreditation of our programs, and got our finances in order, ExxonMobil could go a long way in supporting UNITECH. In fact, until in 2017 we obtained an unqualified audit of our accounts from the Auditor General's office, they supported the University mostly in kind, by giving a large GenSet to deal with the persistent power problems, a large server, countless computers and laptops, laboratory equipment etc. I was very grateful for this support.
Most importantly concerning the employability of graduates, we were able to set up the "Industrial Advisory Board" (IAB) with participation of all major foreign and national industries. This was part of the accreditation process for the engineering programs as per the Washington Accords. I was also able to ensure the advice and cooperation of the experienced Dean of Engineering of James Cook University at the time, who is an old friend of mine from my days at the University of Utrecht.
International professional accreditation is the key process driving the transformation of UNITECH and the delivery of a modern, competence focused curriculum. Today, it is simply not good enough when the Vice Chancellor prounces around saying his University's programs are "world class". International accreditation assures that an independent body visits the university, interviews all stakeholders, including students, and assesses the progams against international standards. It is distinct from "provisional accreditation" which is based on a promise by the University to do better.
Though I continued to monitor progress, I delegated this responsibility for professional accreditations to Dr. Augustine Moshi, the Pro Vice Chancellor Academic. In 2017, however, the members of the IAB made me aware there was insufficient progress, and therefore suggested I intervene. Dr. Moshi had made a hash of things, and believed that sending polite emails to the departments would actually change things on the ground. After complaints by several IAB members about Dr. Moshi lack of commitment and execution skills, I established some hard deadlines at the IAB meeting, but regrettably before those dates were reached, I had already been pushed out. The best chance to achieve even professional accreditation of one or more engineering programs had thus been lost.
In this members of my management team resembled the incompetent generals of the First World War, who send communications from a safe place dozens of miles behind the trenches, never understanding what was really going on. I tried to make them more aware by instituting a 'walk around' schedule for them, but this did not change their mindsets. When our executive team coach pointed out after 2 years that the members of my management team had not achieved a single of the objectives they set for themselves in their key performance areas, I should have replaced them with capable people. Regrettably it was too late, and they had already set up a whisper campaign against me with the Chancellor and Council members in a blatant attempt to mask their own incompetence.
In order to achieve the overall transformation of the University, a strong focus on the reform of the University Council and restructuring of the university's personnel, as well as on outcomes of academic improvement programs had to be kept. As to this first goal, I must admit with hindsight that we failed. The main reason was that the members of the management team and senior staff, who said they were committed to this transformation, found it too foreign to their beliefs, and too hard and so simply gave up. You can not drive the transformation of a University into a modern, rule-based organization, if you cling to an mediocrity mindset based on "this is how we do things around here".
As to the latter, many academic improvements were effectively implemented, although today the focus has shifted again, and the interests of the administrative staff and Faculty members again prevails upon those of the students. The University Council in 2017 instead of asking for accountability, chose the side of mediocrity and the status quo.
Chancellor Kekedo's Mediocrity Mindset
The current Chancellor, Jean Kekedo, is the main exponent of the mediocrity mindset, and well known for her ignorance, bias, and spite, in particular towards foreigners. She always portrays herself as a victim, and complains how she is being treated.She has been in cahoots with Ralph Saulep, the former disgraced Pro Chancellor, who in 2018 was the one who paid the police offers to harass me, and in 2012 even sent his bodyguards waving their guns after my vehicle in Port Moresby. Even after January 2019, when all false allegations were thrown out by the courts for lack of evidence, Kekedo has refused to apologize or eliminate all the baseless accusations as published on the internet. A real class act.
Her power stems from being tapped into numerous gossip networks and knowing a lot of dirt on politicians. To my surprise, for example, she told several council members quite publicly in a break during a council meeting, how she had found Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in bed with Mrs. Ni the chair of the Chinese association and wife of a friend of his, while inspecting the presidential suite at the Airways hotel in preparation for the visit of Prince Charles - nambawan pikinini bilong misis kwin - in 2012. I am just relaying a story she volunteered to tell to myself, the UNITECH management team and at least a handful of other Council members. It is amazing how Peter O'Neill accepts her as an ally, while she openly dishes out the dirt about him.
Mrs. Kekedo herself is unimaginably gullible, unable to distinguish between truth and fiction, and believes all gossip staff tell her. She seldom writes anything down, and I found out she never reads or understands any reports either. She is based in Kokoda, does not know how to use the internet, and usually does not read or send emails.
She would tell amazing stories she heard about my driver, for example. Meanwhile, in all these years when she was on Council, she successfully blocked all efforts to prosecute the criminals in the previous Council, and blocked Council reform successfully.
She is also in the habit of disauthorizing the Vice Chancellor, and believes she runs the University. In my case, she never hesitated to publish a series of slanderous lies in the newspaper, and on the internet, for which she has never taken down these web publication or apologized to me after they were all proven false in the courts, as they had been earlier in 2013 in the Sevua Investigation report.
Given Kekedo's reputation and behaviour it is a complete disgrace that she was appointed as Chancellor by the Government of Peter O'Neill. I can only imagine why this happened. Chancellor Bogan should never have allowed her to become his successor, and reverse all good progress achieved under his own Chancellorship. Lack of succession policies and accoutability for results has reversed progress at UNITECH, and continue the boycott culture and tradition of often violent campus protests.
Student Involvement
So far I have described the role of some prominent alumni in driving the employability agenda, and the incomprehensible reversal on this matter by Chancellor Bogan. What was the role of students in all this? Surprisingly, it has been a very positive one, until in 2016 they fell prey to the manipulations of the politicians who set the various groups up against each other.When I came to UNITECH the first time in 2011, I was appalled to see that some department and the University administration, had set up tiny windows behind bars through which students could ask for information. When I became Vice Chancellor, I ordered all these bars removed, which in fact happened in the teaching departments but not in the University administration. I quickly discovered that students were seen by the staff as a nuisance, and addressed as "children". There was a complete failure to understand the essential role University students must play in university governance in management.
As I mentioned above, the excellent university governance system inherited from the Australian colonial period, is based on the concept of dual governance and shared governance. Dual governance means academic freedom and freedom of inquiry is protected by having two separate boards of equal importance: the University Council which deals with all financial and corporate strategic matters, and the Academic Board which deals with all academic matters. The Vice Chancellor roles it to execute the decisions of both boards, and assure there is harmony between them. At UNITECH this is made easier with the Vice Chancellor being the chair of the Academic Board.
Conversely, the University Council is chaired by a Chancellor, who has not executive powers and is NOT 'the boss' of the University. As per the University Act of 1986 (never revised), he or she is merely the ceremonial head of the University and chairs the Council meetings. In PNG this role is most often misunderstood, but it is essential that the Vice Chancellor be free in exercising his or her executive powers, and is then subsequently held accountable by Council. If the roles are confused, nobody ends up being responsible, and proper leadership can not be provided.
Now as to the students, they have meaningful representation - one male and one female - in both the University Council and Academic Board, as well as the relevant 40+ committees where the operationally important decisions are taken. When there were honest SRC presidents like Joe Kaowai in 2012, Eddy Nagual in 2014, Richard Mabiria in 2015, we cooperate well and assured students understood the issues and were able to participate meaningfully. Apart from the statutory obligations, I am convinced the PNG universities need more than less students involved in governance. In fact, with a small grant in 2012, we were able to organize a workshop on leadership for all the countries SRCs with a small grant from Australian aid program. Regrettably, it proved impossible to repeat this experience in 2014 and following years.
When I observed the scant understanding of university governance, the disregard for the voice of the students, and the continual efforts of government to intervene in the appointment of management but also of professors, I decided was important to assure the UNITECH receive support in sticking to its fundamental and constituting principles. For this reason, in order to save university money, during my annual leave on behalf of UNITECH I signed the Magna Charta Universitatum in Bologna, the oldest University in the world, thus becoming the first PNG university to do so.
 |
| Signing MCU to support student involvement at UNITECH |
Apart from these formal mechanisms of constant consultation and involvement of the students in university governance, I created a few informal ones. First, it made it known that after 4 pm, student leaders but also individual students could ask an appointment with me, which I would give the first day. Similarly, Head of Departments could ask between 8 am and 9 am, but they seldom did. The students however came regularly, and often I was able to help them by taking a few simple measures. Of course, the Registrar Veronica Thomas and her closest underlings were always appalled by the idea that a Vice Chancelor would talk to students, because they wanted to keep me from knowing what was really going on. I came to PNG however to serve the students, not the staff. The staff is supposed to implement the decisions of the Vice Chancellors office, not the other way around.
In addition, the last Friday of each month we had management forum with the students and staff. A forum does not have a fixed membership so the students could bring whoever they wanted. Regrettably, after 2016 when some students had been radicalized by their provincial politicians, and SRC leadership faltered, distrust crept in and these meetings became less productive. Moreover, my colleagues in the management and least of all the Registrar would always avoid attending these meetings.
It was mostly through these informal mechanisms that I became aware the students to their credit demanded better lecturers, world class programs, library internet, in short all basic aspects of a modern University. They understood the world is changing fast, and having a fake degree without any content is not in their best interest.
Final Remarks
Most observers agree that we are living a period of accelerated change, also called the 4th industrial revolution, which will change the way we do everything. The first industrial revolution was initiated by the steam engine, the second one by the adoption of electricity, the third by computers, and the fourth by internet, robots and artificial intelligence. Only now are the effects felt of ubiquitous the internet, mobile phones, robots, now powered by artificial intelligence using big data in real time.As a consequence of the 4th industrial revolution, which we are living now, the role of knowledge and in parallel the role of education become increasingly important. Professionals nowadays are expected to have at least a Masters degree. Regrettably, in PNG the state does not sponsor post-graduate degrees, and the universities are still struggling to assure graduates have the required competences and are employable.
It is therefore vital that universities adapt to the increasing speed of change around them to assure their graduates remain highly employable. Regrettably, University governance is set up for a sedate "community of scholars" and it is hard to drive necessary changes through a university organization. Only by involving students in a meaningful way can we assure universities keep pace with the rest of society, and deliver a modern, competence based curriculum. I never stopped trying to improve the academic programs, but in the end I seem to have been the only one, except for the students who know it is in their own best interest.
My experiences at UNITECH demonstrate that if students themselves don't take action on the matter of university reform, demanding qualified lecturers, adequate learning environments, functioning laboratories, efficient management of operations, and internationally accredited programs, the current Council and management will not do anything for them. UNITECH is not a true university, and its main purpose at the moment is to serve its staff, some of whom feel entitled to life time salary without any accountability or professional performance.
After reading my experiences, one can conclude PNG has wasted 10 years by not implementing the recommendations of the Namaliu/Garnaut report, and will probably waste another 10 years with the notoriously corrupt and illegitimate Peter O'Neill government having just apointed Chancellors and Vice Chancellors in all public universities, and expelled the two foreign Vice Chancellors.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world moves on: the University of the South Pacific with Council support and good leadership, for example, in 2012 had no internationally accredited programs, while in 2017 it had over two dozen programs with international accreditation. Their employment rate 6 months after graduation is 60% and growing, while UNITECH remains 40% and not growing. Moreover, many UNITECH graduates are not employed as graduates but as clerks or technicians.
It is sad that in this story there are no heroes. I managed to achieve a lot of academic quality improvements in the 6 years I was Vice Chancellor, and it has been a pleasure and honour to serve the bright UNITECH students. It is sad, however, that the necessary university council reform, and personnel restructuring was blocked by a few ignorant, selfish, and spiteful individuals.
The negative internal dynamics, brought the university back to where it started. As a result, I was unable to achieve international professional accreditation of one or more engineering programs, necessary to produce highly employable graduates. The best chance for UNITECH students to receive a real university education, and be employed as graduates during their professional career was wasted.
References
CHEPS (https://www.utwente.nl/en/) & CHEGG (http://www.chegg.ugent.be/) and DZHW (https://www.dzhw.eu/) successfully concluded the study “Promoting the Relevance of Higher Education: Trends, Approaches and Policy Levers“ http://bit.ly/33spWu6
Background Readings
Dr. Albert Schram Official PhD Record:
http://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/5972
Cambridge University Press book: http://www.cambridge.org/it/academic/subjects/history/european-history-after-1450/railways-and-formation-italian-state-nineteenth-century?format=HB&isbn=9780521571593
UNTIECH Glassdoor Reviews by former employees:
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Papua-New-Guinea-University-of-Technology-RVW21228726.htm
Media Articles
Consternation in Italy about Vice Chancellor Schram's Unlawful Arrest (In Italian)
http://www.larena.it/docente-veronese-prigioniero-in-nuova-guinea-7.1747352
Albert Schram: My wrongful dismissal and malicious prosecution – a warning
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2018/05/29/albert-schram-my-wrongful-dismissal-and-malicious-prosecution-a-warning/
ABC Radio Interview
http://www.abc.net.au/radio-australia/programs/pacificbeat/png-schram/10282662
Times Higher Education article 1 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/former-v-c-arrested-return-papua-new-guinea
Times Higher Education article 2 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/expatriate-v-c-flees-papua-new-guinea-fearing-his-life
Times Higher Education article 3 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ousted-vice-chancellor-may-never-return-papua-new-guinea
The Australian 1 (pay wall):
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/png-vicechancellor-albert-schram-charged-with-false-pretence/news-story/27f51e82a24e9f67fddaa294dce40174
The Austalian 2 (pay wall):
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/second-foreign-vicechancellor-runs-into-strife-in-png/news-story/bbbaa39241cf2696f051b5d95f5a194b
Times Higher Education article 4 (registration only required):
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/exiled-v-c-fights-to-return-to-papua-new-guinea/2012196.article
Minister Arore investment that never came:
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130712171327182
ANU Australian National University website:
Australian National University blog 1:
http://www.devpolicy.org/albert-schrams-arrest-20180513/
Australian National University blog 2:
http://www.devpolicy.org/papua-new-guinea-loses-another-vice-chancellor-20180820-2/
Dr. Schram's ANU lecture
https://devpolicy.crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/7612/university-reform-papua-new-guinea-unitech-experience
UNRE Case Vice Chancellor John Warren
Times Higher 1:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/expatriate-v-c-flees-papua-new-guinea-fearing-his-life
Telegraph UK 1:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/22/professor-took-cheats-forced-fleepapua-new-guinea-university/
Blog
Second Expat Vice Chancellor Goes
http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2018/08/second-expat-vice-chancellor-goes-png-universities-turn-nasty.html#more
VIDEO UPNG RIOT
8 June 2016 UPNG students shooting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdn4VlqbmC0
& https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJtsDwkVVCU
VIDEO UNITECH RIOT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRXEBRdS1jU
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.