The Australian 18 May 2018: PNG Vice-Chancellor Albert Schram charged with ‘false pretence’

(Here is what Australians read about the PNG universities. This is now 2 years go.

There has never been any evidence for the charge of 'false pretence', and the other allegations were slanderous and trumped up. If not, I would have been charged. 

Anybody can see my PhD is genuine, and in fact, I continue to work in higher education at the University of Maryland Global Campus, a US-based university with a campus in Italy.

The case was thrown out of court for lack of evidence in January 2019, but not without further threats from the police judge.

Meanwhile, nobody has gotten in touch with me, or apologized. AS)

Albert Schram, former vice-chancellor of the PNG University of Technology.

• Tim Dodd

  Higher Education Editor

  @TimDoddEDU

  
• 12:00AM May 16, 2018

Albert Schram, the respected former vice-chancellor of Papua New Guinea’s second largest university, was arrested last week when he re-entered the country and now cannot leave because his passport has been confiscated by PNG authorities.

Dr Schram was controversially dismissed from his job in February this year by the council of Papua New Guinea University of Technology, which accused him of ­having unverified academic credentials, spending too much time travelling and failing to win the promised benefits for the ­university.

After visiting friends in Cairns, Dr Schram returned to PNG on May 1 on a tourist visa, intending to leave from there to his home in Europe.

But he was arrested on arrival at Port Moresby airport, and on May 7 he was charged with “false pretence” over the veracity of his PhD credentials. He was released on bail but is not permitted to leave the country.

The arrest occurred and ­charges were laid even though the secretary of the PNG Department of ­Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, Jan Czuba, ­issued a statement on May 1 verifying Dr Schram’s doctorate.

The case is being watched closely by Australian academics who follow PNG.

Australian National Univer­sity researcher Grant Walton said Dr Schram was a popular figure in PNG who had implemented measures to ­improve the budget, increase trans­parency and engage students as head of Unitech.

“It’s very concerning that he has been detained,” he said. “It sends a negative message about the rule of law in the country and ties to concerns about how academics are treated.”

Dr Walton, a fellow at ANU’s Development Policy Centre, said the charge against Dr Schram was “demonstrably false”.

“His PhD is available online,” he said. (Here is the official record. It was later published as a book with Cambridge University Press.)

Dr Schram has had a turbulent time since his appointment in 2012 to head Unitech, which is based in PNG’s second city of Lae.

In a statement published in February 2013, Dr Schram said he raised the issue of an adverse auditor-general’s report about the university at his first Unitech council meeting in April 2012 “and announced corrective ­measures ­including a number ­related to financial management, accreditation and personnel ­management”.

“The chancellor, who was not empowered to do so, tried to sack me there and then,” Dr Schram said in the statement. “After violent protests by students, during which the car of the president was set on fire, he changed his mind.”

In March 2013 Dr Schram was deported from PNG after allegations from a former Unitech pro-chancellor, Ralph Saulep, that he had not been truthful about his academic qualifications.

Dr Schram was in exile for more than year, working at James Cook University in Cairns, but in April 2014 he was readmitted to the country and returned to Uni­tech, hoisted on the shoulders of cheering students.

Since then he has pressed on with reform measures, trying to make budget changes and build links with overseas universities, until dismissed by the council in February.

The Unitech council said it had nothing to do with Dr Schram’s May 1 arrest.

“Unitech understands that police have been investigating a complaint lodged by the former council in 2012,” it said in a statement issued on May 9.

The Australian contacted Professor Schram in Port Moresby but he declined to comment.

Tim Dodd

Higher Education Editor

Tim Dodd is The Australian's higher education editor. He has over 25 years experience as a journalist covering a wide variety of areas in public policy, economics, politics and foreign policy, including reporti...