The Opportunity Cost of Navel Gazing: a case study of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology - Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (5)

(Published as extract in PNG attitude "How Peter O'Neill screwed up PNG's universities" on 23 October)

Previous blog posts in this series:
Part 1 - A Childhood Dream. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (1)
Part 2 - Employable Graduates. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (2)
Part 3 - The Student Movement. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (3)
Part 4 - The Staff Organizations. Experiences of a Vice Chancellor in Papua New Guinea (4)

Executive Summary

🔑 Outlines the challenges and missed opportunities encountered as the Vice-Chancellor of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUT)
🔍 Describes efforts to modernize the university through digital infrastructure, industry partnerships, and international academic collaborations.
🚫 Highlights how these initiatives were undermined by political interference, lack of Council leadership, and a focus on self-interest over institutional progress
🔮 Emphasizes the opportunity cost of the university's current "navel-gazing" and primacy of national politics approach, which has halted important reforms and partnerships

Background

Although we published earlier on the internationalization efforts which I led as Vice Chancellor at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT), in this article we wish to give a more complete overview of how the transformative, outward-looking strategy was developed, executed, and finally discontinued and replaced by a inward looking, navel gazing approach by the current university council and management.

While as Vice Chancellor I signed over 25 agreements directly beneficial to the PNGUoT from 2014 to 2017 (3 years), in the 2 years from 2018 until today the current management has not undertaken any significant, new initiative, rather claiming my achievements as their own. Nor have they apologized for throwing me under the bus for no reason whatsoever as part of a political witchhunt against foreign Vice Chancellors, instigated by the government of Peter O'Neill

In my approach, internationalization was a cross-cutting theme across the three legs on which the University's strategy rested: first, digital technologies, and secondly successful industry parternships, and thirdly, international academic partnerships. When you can say in one sentence what your strategy is, you have something you can work with. Because my deputies refused to file extensive reports or keep an agenda, I can not always report with a high degree of certainty about the matters that were delegated to them.

By turning the clock backin 2017, the PNGUoT went back to being an organization ruled by whim and favouritism, and serving exclusively the interests of long-term staff, rather than that of the students or the country. In other words, back to how it was before I joined.

Here we will outline the opportunity cost of this navel gazing approach of not engaging widely and transparently with industry and academic partners, in terms of lack of training and education opportunities for students and staff, not carrying out joint research projects, and no longer receiving visiting lectures from leading universities in Australia, India or Europe. Opportunity costs simply mean the costs of not-doing something in terms of benefits sacrificed, because of the choice you made to do something else.

In 2012, I joined the PNGUoT after a career as professor in Latin America and Europe, and 5 years of experience as a higher education executive at some of the leading universities in Europe Maastricht University in the Netherlands, for example, where I served 4 years as a Director of Research Funding ranks in the top 10 in the Times Higher Education ranking of young Universities (top 200 overall), comparable to the very best Australian universities. I would bring concrete know-how on how to create a modern university, producing highly employable graduates. This must have been the University Council's intention when appointing for the first time a European Vice Chancellor, or so I thought.

In 2012, I was delighted and honoured to come to the PNGUoT to serve its wonderful students in the role of Vice Chancellor. This is never a life-time job, and I was aware I would need to work very hard to achieve notable results, which I could add to my CV. At the time, Governance reform seemed well underway, and large infrastructure investment were announced, from the ExxonMobil LNG project revenues. In 2015, my mandate was renewed, and after undergoing a first-ever performance review for a Vice Chancellor in the country at the end of 2016, the university council under chancellor Nagora Bogan expressed their full confidence in my approach and actions.

Little did I know at the time, I would be the last independently appointed Vice Chancellor in the proud history of the PNG university system, with the Peter O'Neill government taking over control of all university affairs through appointment of servile Chancellors and Vice Chancellors. With this institutional autonomy, students' voice in governance, free inquiry and academic freedom, which are all essential for maintain vibrant democracy, were abolished in favour of a Chinese state-controlled university model.

The current Chancellor Kekedo and Vice Chancellor Renagi were appointed by Peter O'Neill in 2017-8, a government that ignored the standing policy to reduce Council size and improve academic quality (see Independent Review of the PNG University System IRUS), but rather passed the Higher Education Act 2014 so that it could interfere heavily in university affairs.

In the history of the country, PNG universities made immense contributions among other things to democratic development. In 2012 for example, when Peter O'Neill wanted to pass the "judicial conduct act" abolishing judges' autonomy, the UPNG student movement stopped it. At the PNGUoT, Chancellor Kekedo, DVC Renagi and Registrar Thomas and all those Council members who participated in the political witchhunt against me, are all complicit in abolishing the structure guaranteeing independent universities, freedom of inquiry and academic freedom in Papua New Guinea, only because it enhanced their own career prospects.

In order to drive his autocratic message home, and for good measure on 8 June 2016, Peter O'Neill also allowed hundreds of life rounds to be fired at peacefully demonstrating students on the UPNG campus, who were demanding he submit himself to the courts. (Today he is still refusing to do this). As a result of this incident the Student Representative Councils (SRCs) were suspended, and government intervened heavily in University Council and management appointments.

In the years after 2012, the increased investment in higher education from the LNG revenue was announced in the world press (see University World News), but never materialized with Peter O'Neill and his mates preferring to waste tax payers money in white elephant projects and vanity events in Port Moresby, such as the Pacific Games and APEC meeting.

Soon it became clear quite soon to anyone bothering to look at university finances, that the PNG Universities were not going to be fully funded by the government of Peter O'Neill: they would typically receive only half of what they should get based on the government's own estimate of costs per student. Of the half, often only 80% or less would be transferred. The transfers wouuld occur monthly with a great delay, not even quarterly. For this reason, my strategy for the PNGUoT was based on tapping into other sources of funding. Today, we can make an inventory of how all this that worked out.

The PNGUoT's game plan or strategy centred around three main themes: converting digital divide into digital advantage, building successful industry partnerships, and broadening and deepening international academic partnerships.

The intended outcome was to wean the university off the dependency on funding from the state by diversifying its sources of revenue, which incidentally in line with declared policy by all PNG governments. Like any other university, for executing this three-pronged strategy, we  engaged with partners world wide, since PNG is after all a small and somewhat remote country. In order to do this, I had to engage in a massive public relations exercise, because the reputation of the PNGUoT had been destroyed by decades of mismanagement and unresponsiveness to most stakeholders.

Due to this strategy, the University would gain a degree of autonomy, and would also independently engage in signing agreements with foreign partners. Peter O'Neill strongly disliked both of these aspects. The success of this strategy is what internally caused the revolt of the envious, which eventually allowed Peter O'Neill to push me out together with the other foreign Vice Chancellor, who was pursuing similar strategic objectives.

Digital Economy and Industry 4.0

When I took over in February 2012, I found broadband internet was not available on campus. In my 3 months plan, I allotted 3 weeks to fix this problem. Little did I know it would take me 3 years, because PNG did not, and still does not have a reliable, high-speed fibre network. Evidently, this severely hampers not only the education sector, but all organizations and business for which reliable broadband internet access has today become a condition for successful operation.

In my mind, it was unacceptable that the only University of Technology in the South Pacific was trying to graduate engineers, without giving them experience in how to use the internet. In my mind, the country and the region could not afford to lose another generation of students who were unprepared for the digital economy, and play a leading role in the 4th industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 in their countries.

In 2012, all the University's traffic was routed through a tiny V-Sat dish, which barely served for email. I immediately signed a contract with Digicel so that management and all HoDs would have a smart phone, allowing them to check their emails. Secondly, we formed a special committee to assist the IT department in their strategic decision-making, since they were manifestly at a loss about what to do. Thirdly, I started to look around for alternative solutions.

In 2014, after my return from exile in Australia, it all came together. By using internal savings, we invested almost K2 million ($1 million) in building an earthstation with two moving satellited dishes which would link up with the O3B network. Through this network we were able to get much more bandwidth (up to 100 Mb/s) and much lower latency (higher speed). In this manner, the PNGUoT became the first University in the world to have campus wide broadband internet through the O3B system.
.

O3B satellite dishes

Although this was clearly a strategic decision, I chose to bring it directly to council rather than try to build consensus from bottom up. The benefits of having internet were so evident, that frankly I did not see the need to build broad consensus. In fact, the broad consensus emerged by itself later, when people started to use the internet from their offices, but also from their homes on campus for free.

Industry Partnerships

As to industry partnerships, I must admit the PNGUoT alumni played a leading role. In particular, Ernie Gangloff (at the time partner at Deloitte) and Peter Loco (GM at General Electric PNG) deeply engaged with me, and frequently came to campus to talk with staff and students.

Their main point was that PNGUoT graduates lacked essential competences to make them work ready: they only looked good on paper.  The same had been found by a report done by Engineers Australia in 2010, which had conveniently been ignored by the Council at the time.

It was clear that we needed to invest in creating an adequate learning environment (internet, laboratories, library), and modernize the curriculum. We tried to build an internal consensus about starting an accreditation process for the engineering departments which would take the other departments in its wake. This was inline with the IRUS report and the institutional quality audit efforts by DHERST. At PNGUoT, I did not want one quality czar who would build up a little empire, rather the Academic Board approved in 2014 an Academic Quality Audit Team (AQAT).

The AQAT team's first task was to assure all subjects would have proper subject files so that they could be externally audited. In 2017, compliance was quite good with about 80% of subjects having such documentation. The next phase of producing a competence map for all programs, however, was not well understood and progressed much slower.

One of the most successful instrument, was the monthly industry breakfast where we would invite all potential industry partners and employers of our graduates, together with the industrial training coordinators. This informal mechanisms was very successful in the sense that the industrial training coordinators for the first time were able to learn from each others best practices, and industry representative were able to voice their concerns and found ways to be helpful.

The industry breakfast resulted in a number of great moments, unforgettable gems. One industry representative from Lae, for example, suggested that a training coordinator would come have a look at their plant. When the academic lamented that he did not have a vehicle, the industry representative immediately offered to pick him up on campus. Too easy.

Another gem, was a PNG entrepreneur, who had hired half a dozen of so graduates. After a brief introduction and expression of gratefulness, he remarked bluntly: "Vice Chancellor why is it that your graduates are unable to do anything?" Instead of excuses he got from me a big smile, and I answered: "That is exactly what I am on about".

I wonder whether anything of this exchange penetrated into the minds of the heads those complacent lecturers and heads of department, who are always talking about "nation building". If your engineers have insufficient practical competences, and you building graduates can't build, you are not contibuting to nation building.

We also formed the high-level industrial advisory board, to which the PVC Academic Dr. Moshi reported his progress on the engineering accreditation process he was supposedly leading. ExxonMobil chaired this meeting. Previously, through a former board member I had established a special relationship with this company, which signalled it could go very far in supporting the PNGUoT. In fact, I am happy to see they kept their word and the support continues.

The joint CEOs in the IAB made two things very clear. They expected:

1. steady progress in academic quality improvement and external accreditation of engineering and other programs; and,
2. high degree of financial accountability and operational efficiency.

Regrettably, as to the first condition, PVC Academic Dr. Moshi failed to lead this process, and fell prey to the shenanigans of some senior staff and academics, who saw the accreditation process merely as an opportunity to earn a higher salary for themselves. Rather than appointing a Dean on merit, for example, they choose to appoint a high status individual who regrettably was unable to put in the work due to have suffered several strokes. A Dean who can only work 2 afternoons per week, can not lead accreditation.

From an audit we knew that NONE of the equipment in the teaching laboratories  of the engineering departments was working, but Dr. Moshi was incapable of drawing up an investment plan,  mobilizing support from industry, or generating funds to make the necessary investments. Without functioning laboratories it would have been impossible to obtain even provisional accreditation in 2019, as was planned.

I tried to support accreditaiton by inviting Prof. Paul Dirks, a former dean of engineering at  James Cook University (JCU) and an academic who I have known for a long time, who had just led the re-accreditaiotn process. In my view, he made it very clear what needed to be done, and that a significant effort had to be devoted to the task. He even spelled out that weekly structured departmental meetings were required for more than 1 year in order to create a modern, competence based curriculum. Dr. Moshi, however, never started this work, preferring to talk rather than to act.

After receiving many complaints about Dr. Moshi's apparent cluelessness and lack of leadership, in December 2017 I intervened, and with the Industrial Advisory Board clearly established a time table for the head of the engineering department to deliver results. By that time, however, the government through the Chancellor and her accomplices had decided to start to attack me, so I was unable to carry through.

As to the second element, this was my responsibility towards the University Council but also towards the External Audit Board, chaired by the Dept. of Treasury.

ExxonMobil understood this would take some time, and from 2014 to 2016 supported the University heavily by donations in kind: a large server, a large genset, lab equipment, laptop computers etc. This played a key role in getting support for the accreditation process.

ExxonMobil Donates GenSet

The donation of the server as well as the GenSet revealed tremendous weakness in the PNGUoT's internet network as well as the electricity network. As to the internet, the newly formed IT advisory committee benefitted greatly from the input from HoD Dr. Peter Kiss from the Electrical and Communication department. The ICTS department however was slow in taking up the advice, and the appointment of an HoD who turned out to be incompetent and corrupt, did not help. As always, there was no support in the HR department, however, to dismiss him.

Concerning electricity provision, this was key to everything else. I was able to make some headway, but in 2017 a hostile council and an interfering government thwarted our plans. The GenSet solution would not do, and was very costly both in terms of investments to be made for adequate control technology as well as in diesel fuel. What happened quite regularly was that on Monday the university would run out of diesel for the GenSets. By the time the cheque would finally be issued (if there was money in the kitty), and the fuel would be delivered it would be Friday. With some bad luck there would be a long power cut during the weekend, with the GenSet running continuously to power empty administrative and academic buildings. On Monday morning, the fuel would again be finished, and the same cycle would start over again.

In 2016 and 2017, I visited the University of Cambridge (UK) which has an active group of researchers focusing on Papua New Guinea in various science, social sciences and humanities departments. Many of these researchers would visit PNG regularly, and I invited them for a guest lecture to the PNGUoT.

At the economics department, I worked with a researcher to make sense of the PNGUoT staff survey, and the propensity of staff to use the wantok system as informal insurance and support (taxation) mechanism. This is a key variable when restructuring staff, and though not unique is quite typical for PNG society.

Meanwhile, I was trying to establish a degree of cooperation with the Judge Business School, and identified opportunities in executive education. Most importantly, however, was my signing of a letter of intent with a Judge Business School spin-off solar energy company. They had developed a unique technology, and the GM had direct experience of working in PNG. The idea was to make an investment of about K200,000 with a return time on investment of less than 2 years. Essentially it meant you would pay your energy bill 2 years in advance, and then the remaining life time of the project (about 20 years) would receive considerable revenue. The externalities of this project were as important as the financial benefits. By setting up a small solar array on campus, and purchasing some storage activity, the whole network with its inevitable gensets would be stabilized. The power surges and harmonic effects which were destroying all equipment would finally be a thing of the past.

To my amazement, the DVC Renagi at the time, supposedly as a physicist a proponent of renewable energy, opposed the proposal in Council. I did not know that in my absence he had signed an agreement with Mayur Resources, the infamous coal operation.

We had a chance here to end the University's power problems once and for all by becoming a renewable energy producer, and lead the country and region in the implementation of solar energy.  We had assured the support of leading academics at UC Berkeley and Stanford to develop policy and research around our solar projects. The future for the Pacific is solar, but a better future will now be further away.

As to the second condition set by the Industry Advisory Board CEO's, the University finances, I achieved enormous progress. In 2012, I was called by the deputy auditor general who pointed out that the PNGUoT was the only state agency with an adverse opinion, which means nobody could make any sense of the accounts.

PNGUoT received adverse opinion in 2012

While we did not have a competent bursar (CFO) in 2014 and most of 2015, we worked with an external consultant who quickly sorted out a large number of issues. Among other things, he simplified the reporting system, so that finally we could produce the mandatory financial report on time.

Another key step was for me to lower the mandate of the Head of Departments (HoDs) from K5,000 to K2,000. The collusion between some HoDs and small shops in town became apparent. These shops knew that by sending invoice below K5,000 these would be approved quickly and they would fly under the radar. This game was up. When the new Bursar arrived in 2015, we were able to institute a series of other financial control mechanism. As a result in 2017, we saved over K2 million almost 20% of total operational expenses.

Annual savings after financial controls

Our efforts did not go unnoticed an in 2017 for the first time in over 20 years (or maybe ever) the PNGUoT received an unqualified, clean audit report from the Auditor Generals Office. In order to correctly understand the magnitude of this achievement, at the time over the 100+ state agencies only half a dozen or so received a clean audit.

Clean Audit in 2017!

I calculated that if the government had transferred all the funds in 2017 (which they did not), for the first time the PNGUoT would have had a balanced budget with revenue covering all expenses.

As a result of these efforts and my leadership, at the Industrial Advisory Board meeting ExxonMobil finally committed to support PNGUoT financially to the tune of K200,000+ which they presented to the new Vice Chancellor in 2019. He did nothing for this, never attended any of the IAB meetings and has no idea what an accreditation process actually involves.

In my view, this was only the first step, since the Master Plan for campus development would have generated other, new revenue streams and allow the University to generate a superavit to be invested in its aging, and obsolete infrastructure. This master plan was approved by Council, but then boycotted by Chancellor Kekedo and Council Sam Koim, who dismissed the company that had developed it, and wanted their own political appointees to be involved. As Chair of the University Development Cooperation, Koim was also instrumental in covering up the fraud of the previous University Council which cost the University over K3 million. Another tremendous opportunity cost.

Other Council members too tried to subvert the Master Plan. Council Anne Wissink, for example, asked me seriously if the University could build a tailings pond for Morobe Joint Venture (where he husband work). I answered her that it would probably not be a good idea to build a similar storage of toxic waste a few hundred meters from the student dormitories. For me that was the end of it, but I suspect she did not like my answer, and soon decided to join the the political witchhunt of those who wished to push me out, damn the consequences, and no matter the damage to the reputation of the PNGUoT.

Academic Partnerships

Although academic partnerships would do little to address the PNGUoT fragile financial position, by noticeably improving academic quality at least the students would obtain direct benefits to their education. The internationalization of higher education can be defined as “the development and implementation process of policy and programs to include the international, intercultural and global dimensions for the purposes and functions of higher education” (Knight 2003, p. 2).

Although internationalization of higher education includes a large number of activities, commonly they are divided into cross-border activities versus internationalization at home. As to the cross border activities these are implemented through three primary modes of internationalization: development assistance projects (vertical cooperation); exchanges, linkages, and mutually beneficial initiatives (horizontal cooperation); and commercial and market-driven ventures. Internationalization at home, focuses primarily on creating a modern, state of the art curriculum according to international best-practices and standards. It also includes, joint or double degrees, foreign language education, virtual cross-border cooperation through the internet.

The PNGUoT had a number of successful academic partnerships before I came, mainly with Australian universities (CSU, JCU and QUT). With CSU, I renewed the standing MoU and we decided to submit joint research project with ACIAR and invite students through the new Colombo Plan. Since the Agriculture Department is driving this relationship without the university management being involved, these activities fortunately continue. We also started a new academic partnership with Curtin University. All these arrangements were negotiated in detail, and put on paper in signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs)

First Colombo Plan visiting student from CSU

As to new partnership, with the generous support of Trukai we were able to sign 12 agreements with Indian universities and funding organizations. From 2014 to 2016, for instance, through the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), for example, we received a management professor for 2 semesters, who was extremely effective and helpful in modernizing the curriculum. The same department, also received an accounting professor, from the University of Sydney no less, although there was not embedded in a wider framework of cooperation.

During my annual leave in Europe, I tried to establish academic partnership there as well. This was done obviously to avoid having to travel twice to Europe, and is allowed by the standing rules and procedures. It proved to be difficult, however, since in Europe many universities already have established international networks, and are not interested in the Pacific region. Nevertheless, we were able to sign a partnership agreement with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE), the oldest University of Technology in the world.

As a result of my efforts, we hosted an external assessor for the applied physics department. His findings regarding the content of the curriculum and its delivery were quite critical. However regarding the exam papers of the students, he told me some of the best paper were exemplary, and he copied a number of answer from the students to show as examples at his home university. This is how good PNG students can be, but regrettably so much talent is wasted by the refusal to modernize the curriculum and update teaching practices.

With the support of the Indian High Commissioner Chandra, and the hard work of Prof. Gopalakrishnan (who had been delegated with implementing PNGUoT's India policy), we found the Indian Council for Cultural Relations willing and able to provide more than two scholarships for PNGUoT young graduates to pursue their Masters and Doctorate in India. The advantage is that unlike for Australia and New Zealand, in India the visa for the Masters program can simply be extended, without a need to return home.

With the Indian Council for Agricultural Resource we were able to sign an agreement that would have allowed a dozen or so visiting scientist to visit the PNGUoT from 2018 onwards. After 7 years of negotiation we signed an agreement to make the PNGUoT re-seller of the famous Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) programs. These negotiations started before I became Vice Chancellor in 2011, and will be signed by IGNOU after I had left on 18 April 2018. In Fiji, with the University of the South Pacific we were able to sign an agreement which would allow the delivery of a world-class, AMBA (Association of MBA's) accredited program. The current Executive MBA programs offered by the PNGUoT and UPNG are sub-standard and financially not sustainable.

Regrettably, the current PNGUoT management continues to navel gaze and is not giving follow through to any of these agreements with clear financial benefits for the PNGUoT, or can even be bothered to respond to the correspondence. They are only interested in traveling to Australia, where they talk a lot, but nothing is agreed or signed.

Facts on Effort and Results

In PNG in he topsy-turvy PNG world of systemic corruption, those who work hard and achieve results are sidelined, because they cause envy among their colleagues, and make them look bad.

Here is an overview of my efforts and results as Vice Chancellor, based on my carefully kept agenda. This was all published earlier on my official Facebook page in 2018 for full disclosure as a response to all the slanderous lies spread about me by Chancellor Kekedo, Registrar Veronica Thomas, Dep. Registrar Nancy Laena, Council Sam Koim and DVC Ora Renagi for reasons only known to themselves. They never withdrew these lies from the internet, or apologized to me and my family for the damage they did.

Most importantly, we managed to establish the tradition of shared and dual governance, and involve students and faculty in the governance of the University, in accordance with the University Act. It is evident that I scheduled my work well, so that on average I could  chair 60+ meetings.

Hard work

On average I travelled about 27% or a quarter of my work days, which is unavoidable for a Vice Chancellor. After all, you can not sign agreements remotely. Universities, are after all internationally organizations and its standards and best-practices are determined internationally. My annual travel and representation expenses were minimal compared to the benefits, and compared to the money my policies actually saved the university.

Time in PNG: 60%, travel 30% leave 10%

With my international travel I managed to sign about 29% new agreements all beneficial to the University. As a result, from 2014 to 2017 we managed to send about 77 lecturers abroad for further study or higher degrees, about 50% of the eligible members of staff. As you can see, my activities in 2017 where similar to those in 2015 and 2016. Since I got my performance review at the end of 2016, and I did not receive any feedback on my internationalisation strategy, it is clear that the objections raised in 2017 where purely politically motivated.

Staff and Student Mobility from Internationalization Efforts

It is also clear that in terms of opportunities for lecturers to update their skills, or obtain a higher degree necessary for their promotion, a lot changed during my tenure. Regrettably, because my second term was cut short, I did not have enough time to massively open opportunities for young graduates to do their Masters degree abroad. Since the current management tends to see a scholarship as something for a high status, senior individual, it is doubtful young PNGUoT graduates will ever be offered similar opportunities.

Final Remarks

Some may be surprised about the width and depth of international partnerships and cooperation, I was able to develop in only a few years. This came about only throught hard work, while on campus and while on business travel. I guess it is the kind of work I do well, because of my international background and diplomatic skills.Council members should learn nothing new since all these activities were extensively reported to them each council meeting, if they bother to read my reports.

Council approved the strategy structure in 2016, including the internationalization efforts. All members of SEMT and senior staff knew about all my activities, which were also communicated to them while I chaired over 60 meetings per year.

Contrary to Chancellor Kekedo's beliefs, a Vice Chancellor from Papua New Guinea as legal representative needs to negotiate agreements in person and needs to be present to sign. There are very few foreign partners who want to travel to Lae, because of security concerns.

As to travel, it took a great deal of energy and came at the expense of my social life and health. I had imposed the discipline upon myself before every mission away from Lae to state my objectives, upon which the Registrar and Bursar would approve an advance in my travel expenses. After returning I would file an extensive mission report as a condition to receive the balance of the expenses.

Now that provisional accreditation of the engineering programs has NOT been achieved this year nor the next, most stakeholders are realizing how incompetent and lazy the current management of the PNGUoT is. It is such a shame that the results of all my hard work, leveraging my professional network, will no longer benefit the students and staff of the long-suffering PNGUoT.

Comfortable navel gazing has replaced successful engagement with external stakeholders in industry and academia. Although the current management manifestly does not have the ability to negotiate or sign strategic, new agreements with industry and academic partners, the least they could do is to follow through on the existing ones. Even this they can't be bother to do.

After all, for them the status and perks that come with the job is all that matters, not what they actually do, or achieve. Consumed by their preocupation with status, and trying to hold on to their position eternally or pass it on to their children, they forget about the most important thing for a university: to provide a positive learning experience for its students and produce employable, work-ready graduates.

References

Knight, J. 2003. “Updated Internationalization Definition.” International Higher
Education (Boston College)

Annex 1: List of 30 Agreements Signed or Renewed 2012-17

1. 

   PNG Masters student at Sardar Patel University

   Australia

1. 2014: Queensland University of Technology - tuition waiver for 2 PhD positions per year (negotiated and signed)
2. 2014: James Cook University - general agreement (negotiated and signed)
3. 2017: Charles Sturt University - well established partnership driven by PNGUoT Agriculture Dept. Renewal including joint research projects (renewed)
4. 2017: Curtin University - tuition waiver for council medal winners (negotiated and signed)
   
   China
5. 2015: Hebei University - recuirement for possible creation of Confucius Institute (negotiated and signed)
6. 2015: Chonquin University - recuirement for possible creation of Confucius Institute (negotiated and signed)
   
   Europe
7. 2012: European Commission's Erasmus Mundus CARPIMS - student and staff mobility for higher degree studies (negotiated and signed)
8. 2012: European Commission's Erasmus Mundus BULA - student and staff mobility for higher degree studies (negotiated and signed)
9. 2012: European Commission's Erasmus Mundus Dream_ACP - student and staff mobility for higher degree studies (negotiated and signed)
10. 2014: European Commission's Erasmus Mundus Erasmus Plus Mobile+2 - student and staff mobility (negotiated and signed)
11. 2014: European Commission's Erasmus Mundus KA107 projects - student and staff mobility (negotiated and signed)
12. 2015: Association of Commonwealth Univeristies (Stellenbosch South Africa) - participation in Annual General Meeting, assured scholarship for ACU Masters student at PNGUoT (negotiated and signed)
13. 2015: Magna Charta Universitatum - membership of prestigeous university association led by the University of Bologna, the oldest University in the world (negotiated and signed)
14. 2016: Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE) - Hungarian scholarships for PNG students, visiting Faculty (negotiated and signed)
15. 2017: Cambridge Energy Partners - intent to build small solar power plant
    (negotiated and signed)
    
    Fiji
16. 2012: Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) - network membership access to scholarships and research grants (negotiated and signed)
17. 2017: University of South Pacific - Graduate school of Business for delivery in PNG of AMBA accredited MBA program (negotiated and signed)
    
    Indian Funding organizations:
18. 2016 Indian Council of Cultural Relations - 2 and possibly 4 full scholarship for PNG students (negotiated and signed 11 December 2015)
19. 2018: Indian Council for Agricultural Relations - 12 visiting scientists (negotiated and signed 3 January 2018)
    
    Indian Universities:
20. 2015: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University - joint rice research (negotiated and signed 19 February 2015)
21. 2015: Sardar Patel University - access to scholarships (negotiated and signed 14 December 2015)
22. 2017: Anna University - access to scholarships (negotiated and signed 23 December 2017)
23. 2018: Gujarat Forensic Sciences University - training for security officers
24. 2018: Indian Institute of Technology – Gandhinagar  Masters and PhD scholarship for PNGUoT graduate (negotiated and signed 10 January 2018)
25. 2018: Maharana Prata University of Agriculture and Technology - student and staff mobility (negotiated and signed 7 January 2018)
26. 2018: Indian Institute of Technology - Gandhinagar - joint research, scholarships for PNGUoT students and staff (negotiated and signed 10 January 2018)
27. 2018: Indira Gandhi National Open University - reselling all their programs in PNG (negotiated to be signed by IGNOU Vice Chancellor and Minister)
    
    Papua New Guinea
28. 2012: National Agricultural Research Institute - renewable long-term partnership with the PNGUoT Agriculture department (renewed)
29. 2015: Divine Word University - joint degree programs and student exchange
    (negotiated and signed 2 March 2015)
    
    Japan
30. 2015: Akita Universty - student and staff mobility

1. 

   1. Signing NARI agreement

   

   Signing DWU agreement