(Updated in May 2020. The "Hooray!" in the title is cynically used, and refers back to an earlier Hooray! article when #UNITECH was still moving forward.
Meanwhile, in January 2019 the case against me was dismissed by the courts due to lack of any evidence. Other charges were never laid in my regard.
In sum, it was all nonsense and madness, and my detractors in 6 years have never been able to show I did anything against the law. AS)
On 1 June 2015, the PNGUoT became the first university in the world to have campus-wide broadband internet through the O3B satellite system. Because of mismanagement, now it is the only university in the world where you can see the internet, but nobody can use it.
Meanwhile, in January 2019 the case against me was dismissed by the courts due to lack of any evidence. Other charges were never laid in my regard.
In sum, it was all nonsense and madness, and my detractors in 6 years have never been able to show I did anything against the law. AS)
No More Internet
When I was Vice-Chancellor from 2012 to 2018, we worked hard to bring the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT) into the 21st century as to its basic IT-enhanced learning environment through Google Classroom, providing all students with 50% subsidized lapstops, as well as through the development of a modern, competence-based curriculum delivered in a student-centred manner. In order to improve teaching, we created the Post-Graduate Certificate on Student-Centred Teaching for all lecturers, now discontinued.On 1 June 2015, the PNGUoT became the first university in the world to have campus-wide broadband internet through the O3B satellite system. Because of mismanagement, now it is the only university in the world where you can see the internet, but nobody can use it.
 | |
| UNITECH: the only university in the world where you can SEE the internet, but can not USE it. |
The current management and Council, however, decided to rent out the O3B installation to DataCo without having a backup plan. DataCo themselves have stated that they are not readily distributing the bandwidth from the new under-sea cable until September or October. Any deal with them should therefore have started in January 2021 at the earliest.
The University management seems to be making a real effort to bring the university back half a century, into the 1970s of the 20th century, intentionally or through sheer ignorance, incompetence or callousness. Of course, there are strong suspicion that greed and venality are behind all this, but we will never know, will we? Here is a sad tale of regression, which has forced me today to speak out in an effort to reverse this trend.
Today's Chancellor Mrs. Jean Kekedo, who was appointed by Peter O'Neill, apparently, has great nostalgia for the 1970s, and has remarked several times that she wants to go back to these simpler times.
Those who know the facts, and still believe my separation from the PNGUoT as Vice Chancellor had anything to do with my achievements, or performance as Vice Chancellor or my academic credentials, need their head examined. Kekedo, however, apparently still believes I falsified something, although in 6 years nobody has been able to produce any proof of this, and therefore the whole vexatious case was thrown out of court, as I described elsewhere in my own words. In May 2018, a judge in the National court called it "ridiculous and difficult to fathom" that my academic credentials are still being questioned, without a shred of evidence.
The cases of the wrongful persecution of two foreign Vice Chancellors in PNG got a lot of attention in the international press (e.g. The Australian, Times Higher Education). They were also covered in detail by the noted Australian journalist and blogger Keith Jackson and by Prof. Stephen Howes, the director of the Development Institute of the Australian National University and an influential voice in Australian aid policies.
It is the hallmark of an educated mind to be able to distinguish fact from fiction. Regrettably, the uneducated see con men and deceit everywhere, even when confronted with the real thing. It does not help that Mrs. Kekedo does not know how to use the internet, where she could find out the truth. She imposed a travel ban and believes no member of the university staff (except herself and a few friends) should travel abroad, and that all training, meetings and negotiating of agreements can be done remotely through video-conference. Mrs. Kekedo is like those people who believe President Barrack Obama was not born in the USA.
There are even some who have said I have been lazy. My excellent timekeeping over these years allowed me to produce these tables. It was my duty to share over 60 meetings on average per year, and I never missed a Council meeting.
Although from 2014 to 2017 I was on campus on average 180 days (80% of workdays) as Vice Chancellor from 2014 to 2017. Only in 2017 did I take compassionate leave because my father passed away in Italy.
I managed to sign 23 agreements with foreign universities and funding institutions, plus the same number of agreements with national institutions, all beneficial to UNITECH giving it access to more resources and establishing its reputation a reliable partner.
As a result of this hard work, I was able to re-establish the international reputation of the University, and we managed to send 77 faculty and staff members abroad for some form of training, of which 27 for a PhD.
The reasons behind all Mrs. Kekedo's viewpoints or feelings are usually unclear, but she feels she does not need to explain any of her decisions. Although she finished high school (not university), she never writes anything down. As per the University Act, the Chancellor is exclusively the ceremonial head of the University, but Mrs. Kekedo believes she is an executive, accountable only to the government. Consequently, she needs a Vice Chancellor who is most agreeable to all, and holds no opinions on anything. She has said frequently in Council that the University should not waste money on the dining hall and providing meals for the students, suggesting that the dining hall may remain closed next year. Just like when she went to school in colonial times.
She has repeatedly said a number of other odd things in public meetings and apparently has a lot of dirt on the current members of the government including the PM, which I will write about at a later stage. She also has expressed the idea that her position is not subject to term limits. As a result of her behaviour, the University Council has lost it independence, and become a rubber stamp machine, controlled by Peter O'Neill in Waigani.
Today's current University management has failed to understand simple commercial realities and continues to accuse iPi, the catering contractor of overcharging although there is no breach of contract conditions. The University will most likely lose its court case and reimburse iPi for building the temporary mess, and pay the company until the end of the contract.
This same contractor is of goodwill and is acting in good faith. At its own expense, for example, the company rebuilt the temporary mess facility following international health and safety standards, after the old mess tragically burned down in the riots of June 2016. The management this year has frittered away the funds to rebuild the dining hall, so there will be no new mess building any time soon. Currently, the university still owes them several months amounting to almost K4 million, making them their largest private creditor.
Given the current conflict with the catering contractor, provoked by the management, it is indeed unlikely the mess can re-open next year. The management has stubbornly refused to find a solution and is now taking a long vacation. Lately, all kitchen equipment has been removed and it is unlikely another contractor can reopen the mess with a bit more than one month to spare. Students, for 2019 bring your own breakfast, lunch and dinner, or prepare to tend your own garden, and bring your own chickens and pigs.
In those post-colonial days from which Mrs. Kekedo seems to be taken her cues, it was also acceptable, even bon-ton to insult foreigners and expel them from the country for no reason other than personal dislike. The recent episode which led to my hasty separation and departure was followed by wrongful detention on false charges by corrupt policemen in Port Moresby orchestrated by Kekedo & co, have destroyed the international reputation and credibility of the University, which I worked so hard to restore.
As a result of this debacle, it is now virtually impossible for the PNGUoT to hire qualified academics with a terminal degree (PhD) who have experience working at world-class universities. The university is bottom-feeding, and can hire only foreign academics, who often have no other career options. The type of University the Chancellor and Council seem to have in mind is of an autarchic village, not caring about and closed off from the rest of the world, brandishing a unique kind of knowledge, uninformed by recent scientific advances or ideas of outsiders.
Leaving aside these absurdities, let’s focus now on the basic conditions for research, teaching and learning, which is after all the core mission of any University. Here is the story of a unique, ongoing experiment not in education but in the replication of ignorance.
From 2014 in a few years time, we managed to improve the power supply, obtain access to the internet and assure students would have laptops. This was done without any extra funding or help from the state. In 2014, there was no map or documentation available about the power network on campus, and it had never been examined. A large number of incongruities in the campus electricity network were found, which explained why dozens of power cuts continued to happen on campus, some lasting days.
Nevertheless, very slowly we managed to hook up the diesel gensets, and ExxonMobil assisted by donating a large genset to increase capacity. In 2017, we were offered the opportunity to invest in building a reliable small solar plant, but because the government suddenly decided to pay all the University’s power (but not its fuel bills), there was no strong business case to be made, and the plan was shelved.
The story of how we got internet access has been told many times. At first sight, it seemed an unsolvable conundrum. The country had ( and still has) no reliable fibre network because it failed to build in redundancy or give maintenance to what it had. In 2014, it was in fact the president of DWU and his excellent IT team who made me aware of the O3B, satellite-based system. During my leave, I decided to visit O3B HQ in The Hague while on leave, and convinced them to take on their first and only university client. The rest is history. We managed to build an earth station with 2 tracking satellite dishes, which was opened by the then Minister of DHERST Malakai Tabar and went operational on the 1st of June 2015.
The need to upgrade the internal campus network became evident immediately. Regrettably, this is where things went sour. The newly recruited IT Director seemed to have other priorities and did not have his eyes on the ball. A large investment in upgrading the Wifi network turned sour as a result, and wifi coverage actually got worse. New investments were needed to address the situation.
Another spoiler attempt came from Huawei, who wanted to provide the routers. Their offer however was opaque and not transparent. They made a promise to set up a service centre in Lae, which never materialized. As a consequence, the University wisely stuck with Cisco routers, for which relevant staff had received training and which offered good support. Now, this may have changed.
As to the laptops, DWU had set up PNG R-Net a buyers pool for all PNG universities. Through their arrangements, we were able to buy Dell laptops straight from the producer in Malaysia at a reduced price. The students paid 50% as their own contribution to create a sense of ownership. The Dell brand was chosen by DWU as being the most reliable in PNG environment and for student use. After a few years, the authorized Dell dealer in PNG made the University a competing offer, and I believe the laptops are now acquired in-country, which improves the service, payment options and availability. It is possible however that arrangements have been changed, and Chinese Lenovo laptops are now procured.
As a result of the demonstrated lack of capacity of the Peter O'Neill appointed Council to govern the University, and management near total ineffectiveness, there will be no more visiting academics at the PNGUoT. During my tenure as Vice Chancellor, I am proud for example, to have hosted the first visiting professors in 2016 from India, and in 2017 also from Australia (e.g. University of Sydney) and Europe (e.g. Budapest University of Technology and Economics) at minimal cost to the PNGUoT.
Many of these visitors stayed for a whole semester and got their hands dirty teaching both undergraduate semester and graduate courses. The failure of management to follow through on arrangements with foreign universities, for example, which in 2018 and 2019 would have sent dozen of visiting scientists per year, means that this type of knowledge exchange has stopped.
The current generation of students do not have post-colonial hang-ups. They justly demand better services and qualified and experienced lecturers. The current Council's and management's recent actions do little to create an acceptable learning environment or improve the education of the students.
The government and university council's hostile actions towards me and my colleague UNRE Vice Chancellor Prof. John Warren this year, which drew a lot of international press coverage, have now made it virtually impossible for PNG universities to recruit qualified and experienced foreign academics. Meanwhile, the Student Representative Councils at PNGUoT and UPNG apparently have been suspended indefinitely.
Without a productive knowledge exchange, and the appointment of strong academic leaders, external professional accreditation of engineering programs will never occur. Industry support as a result will diminish. Striving for accreditation means a lot of quality measures need to be in place. Recently, quality measures have been abolished. This year, for example, the annual graduate survey was not even held, showing there is no interest in finding out whether students actually are employable. Lately, the management’s failure to assure the continuity of mess operations will undoubtedly provoke further hardship for the students.
A University has a different mission and requires a different kind of leadership than a village or a household, whose purpose is to provide shelter, security and conditions for basic subsistence to its inhabitants in an unchanging environment. It is painful to watch how the University Councils and managements at UNRE and the PNGUoT are discovering at the expense of the students that it is much easier to throw rocks and cause bizarre conflicts than to use them to build bridges. Let's hope better leadership can be restored soon.
The University management seems to be making a real effort to bring the university back half a century, into the 1970s of the 20th century, intentionally or through sheer ignorance, incompetence or callousness. Of course, there are strong suspicion that greed and venality are behind all this, but we will never know, will we? Here is a sad tale of regression, which has forced me today to speak out in an effort to reverse this trend.
Today's Chancellor Mrs. Jean Kekedo, who was appointed by Peter O'Neill, apparently, has great nostalgia for the 1970s, and has remarked several times that she wants to go back to these simpler times.
Those who know the facts, and still believe my separation from the PNGUoT as Vice Chancellor had anything to do with my achievements, or performance as Vice Chancellor or my academic credentials, need their head examined. Kekedo, however, apparently still believes I falsified something, although in 6 years nobody has been able to produce any proof of this, and therefore the whole vexatious case was thrown out of court, as I described elsewhere in my own words. In May 2018, a judge in the National court called it "ridiculous and difficult to fathom" that my academic credentials are still being questioned, without a shred of evidence.
The cases of the wrongful persecution of two foreign Vice Chancellors in PNG got a lot of attention in the international press (e.g. The Australian, Times Higher Education). They were also covered in detail by the noted Australian journalist and blogger Keith Jackson and by Prof. Stephen Howes, the director of the Development Institute of the Australian National University and an influential voice in Australian aid policies.
It is the hallmark of an educated mind to be able to distinguish fact from fiction. Regrettably, the uneducated see con men and deceit everywhere, even when confronted with the real thing. It does not help that Mrs. Kekedo does not know how to use the internet, where she could find out the truth. She imposed a travel ban and believes no member of the university staff (except herself and a few friends) should travel abroad, and that all training, meetings and negotiating of agreements can be done remotely through video-conference. Mrs. Kekedo is like those people who believe President Barrack Obama was not born in the USA.
 |
| Meetings and Emails |
There are even some who have said I have been lazy. My excellent timekeeping over these years allowed me to produce these tables. It was my duty to share over 60 meetings on average per year, and I never missed a Council meeting.
 |
| Dr. Schram's Work Days on Campus |
Although from 2014 to 2017 I was on campus on average 180 days (80% of workdays) as Vice Chancellor from 2014 to 2017. Only in 2017 did I take compassionate leave because my father passed away in Italy.
I managed to sign 23 agreements with foreign universities and funding institutions, plus the same number of agreements with national institutions, all beneficial to UNITECH giving it access to more resources and establishing its reputation a reliable partner.
As a result of this hard work, I was able to re-establish the international reputation of the University, and we managed to send 77 faculty and staff members abroad for some form of training, of which 27 for a PhD.
The reasons behind all Mrs. Kekedo's viewpoints or feelings are usually unclear, but she feels she does not need to explain any of her decisions. Although she finished high school (not university), she never writes anything down. As per the University Act, the Chancellor is exclusively the ceremonial head of the University, but Mrs. Kekedo believes she is an executive, accountable only to the government. Consequently, she needs a Vice Chancellor who is most agreeable to all, and holds no opinions on anything. She has said frequently in Council that the University should not waste money on the dining hall and providing meals for the students, suggesting that the dining hall may remain closed next year. Just like when she went to school in colonial times.
She has repeatedly said a number of other odd things in public meetings and apparently has a lot of dirt on the current members of the government including the PM, which I will write about at a later stage. She also has expressed the idea that her position is not subject to term limits. As a result of her behaviour, the University Council has lost it independence, and become a rubber stamp machine, controlled by Peter O'Neill in Waigani.
 |
| PNGUoT Chancellor Jean Kekedo |
Conflict with iPi about Catering Contract
Apart from the stupidity of risking operational continuity by making a pre-mature deal with DataCo, who now cut off the university from internet. the current management made another stupid decision. Stupidity or corruption, you never know.Today's current University management has failed to understand simple commercial realities and continues to accuse iPi, the catering contractor of overcharging although there is no breach of contract conditions. The University will most likely lose its court case and reimburse iPi for building the temporary mess, and pay the company until the end of the contract.
This same contractor is of goodwill and is acting in good faith. At its own expense, for example, the company rebuilt the temporary mess facility following international health and safety standards, after the old mess tragically burned down in the riots of June 2016. The management this year has frittered away the funds to rebuild the dining hall, so there will be no new mess building any time soon. Currently, the university still owes them several months amounting to almost K4 million, making them their largest private creditor.
Given the current conflict with the catering contractor, provoked by the management, it is indeed unlikely the mess can re-open next year. The management has stubbornly refused to find a solution and is now taking a long vacation. Lately, all kitchen equipment has been removed and it is unlikely another contractor can reopen the mess with a bit more than one month to spare. Students, for 2019 bring your own breakfast, lunch and dinner, or prepare to tend your own garden, and bring your own chickens and pigs.
 |
| Students cooking their meal at UNITECH in 2019? |
As a result of this debacle, it is now virtually impossible for the PNGUoT to hire qualified academics with a terminal degree (PhD) who have experience working at world-class universities. The university is bottom-feeding, and can hire only foreign academics, who often have no other career options. The type of University the Chancellor and Council seem to have in mind is of an autarchic village, not caring about and closed off from the rest of the world, brandishing a unique kind of knowledge, uninformed by recent scientific advances or ideas of outsiders.
Leaving aside these absurdities, let’s focus now on the basic conditions for research, teaching and learning, which is after all the core mission of any University. Here is the story of a unique, ongoing experiment not in education but in the replication of ignorance.
 |
| Chief Aguendo's vision is not being realized: the current generation of PNGeans is not getting a better education. |
No Learning Can Take Place in Terrible Learning Environment
As in many universities in developing countries, when I became Vice-Chancellor in 2012 at the PNGUoT, students had no access to any learning materials, since the library did not contain any current or useful books or other literature. A recent survey, for example, found that over 35,000 books had probably been stolen, and never replaced. These were of course useful books. In 2012, there was no reliable access to the internet, and students did not have access or possess the internet to enable devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops.From 2014 in a few years time, we managed to improve the power supply, obtain access to the internet and assure students would have laptops. This was done without any extra funding or help from the state. In 2014, there was no map or documentation available about the power network on campus, and it had never been examined. A large number of incongruities in the campus electricity network were found, which explained why dozens of power cuts continued to happen on campus, some lasting days.
Nevertheless, very slowly we managed to hook up the diesel gensets, and ExxonMobil assisted by donating a large genset to increase capacity. In 2017, we were offered the opportunity to invest in building a reliable small solar plant, but because the government suddenly decided to pay all the University’s power (but not its fuel bills), there was no strong business case to be made, and the plan was shelved.
The story of how we got internet access has been told many times. At first sight, it seemed an unsolvable conundrum. The country had ( and still has) no reliable fibre network because it failed to build in redundancy or give maintenance to what it had. In 2014, it was in fact the president of DWU and his excellent IT team who made me aware of the O3B, satellite-based system. During my leave, I decided to visit O3B HQ in The Hague while on leave, and convinced them to take on their first and only university client. The rest is history. We managed to build an earth station with 2 tracking satellite dishes, which was opened by the then Minister of DHERST Malakai Tabar and went operational on the 1st of June 2015.
 |
| UNITECH built the O3B installation by reducing wasteful spending |
The need to upgrade the internal campus network became evident immediately. Regrettably, this is where things went sour. The newly recruited IT Director seemed to have other priorities and did not have his eyes on the ball. A large investment in upgrading the Wifi network turned sour as a result, and wifi coverage actually got worse. New investments were needed to address the situation.
Another spoiler attempt came from Huawei, who wanted to provide the routers. Their offer however was opaque and not transparent. They made a promise to set up a service centre in Lae, which never materialized. As a consequence, the University wisely stuck with Cisco routers, for which relevant staff had received training and which offered good support. Now, this may have changed.
As to the laptops, DWU had set up PNG R-Net a buyers pool for all PNG universities. Through their arrangements, we were able to buy Dell laptops straight from the producer in Malaysia at a reduced price. The students paid 50% as their own contribution to create a sense of ownership. The Dell brand was chosen by DWU as being the most reliable in PNG environment and for student use. After a few years, the authorized Dell dealer in PNG made the University a competing offer, and I believe the laptops are now acquired in-country, which improves the service, payment options and availability. It is possible however that arrangements have been changed, and Chinese Lenovo laptops are now procured.
The Future Not Looking Good
Sharing, or exchanging knowledge, is multiplying knowledge. Since no country in the world has a monopoly on knowledge or talent, Universities from their inception in Italy in the 11th century have always had an open, international outlook. In fact, this is a condition for assuring a vibrant academic learning environment.As a result of the demonstrated lack of capacity of the Peter O'Neill appointed Council to govern the University, and management near total ineffectiveness, there will be no more visiting academics at the PNGUoT. During my tenure as Vice Chancellor, I am proud for example, to have hosted the first visiting professors in 2016 from India, and in 2017 also from Australia (e.g. University of Sydney) and Europe (e.g. Budapest University of Technology and Economics) at minimal cost to the PNGUoT.
Many of these visitors stayed for a whole semester and got their hands dirty teaching both undergraduate semester and graduate courses. The failure of management to follow through on arrangements with foreign universities, for example, which in 2018 and 2019 would have sent dozen of visiting scientists per year, means that this type of knowledge exchange has stopped.
The current generation of students do not have post-colonial hang-ups. They justly demand better services and qualified and experienced lecturers. The current Council's and management's recent actions do little to create an acceptable learning environment or improve the education of the students.
The government and university council's hostile actions towards me and my colleague UNRE Vice Chancellor Prof. John Warren this year, which drew a lot of international press coverage, have now made it virtually impossible for PNG universities to recruit qualified and experienced foreign academics. Meanwhile, the Student Representative Councils at PNGUoT and UPNG apparently have been suspended indefinitely.
Without a productive knowledge exchange, and the appointment of strong academic leaders, external professional accreditation of engineering programs will never occur. Industry support as a result will diminish. Striving for accreditation means a lot of quality measures need to be in place. Recently, quality measures have been abolished. This year, for example, the annual graduate survey was not even held, showing there is no interest in finding out whether students actually are employable. Lately, the management’s failure to assure the continuity of mess operations will undoubtedly provoke further hardship for the students.
A University has a different mission and requires a different kind of leadership than a village or a household, whose purpose is to provide shelter, security and conditions for basic subsistence to its inhabitants in an unchanging environment. It is painful to watch how the University Councils and managements at UNRE and the PNGUoT are discovering at the expense of the students that it is much easier to throw rocks and cause bizarre conflicts than to use them to build bridges. Let's hope better leadership can be restored soon.
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