Welcome for Minister DHERST Francis Marus to UNITECH campus

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

Dear Minister Hon. Francis Marus, Honourable Member, Council members, Professors, Honoured Guest, Business Houses, Students, Faculty and Staff of the PNGUoT, Ladies and Gentlemen:                  

I am delighted today to welcome Minister of DHERST, Francis Marus to our campus. A few days ago on Monday, we opened the 52nd Academic Year of the PNGUoT. 52 years is a long time, in fact we were founded 10 years before PNG became independent.

You may not realize that among the 10 or so oldest institutions in the world, over half of them are universities. Some of our partner universities in Europe, the University of Bologna for example is more than 900 years old, and arguably the oldest university in the world.

Opening PNGUoT 52nd Academic Year 2017

Lecture delivered in the Duncanson Hall on 20 February 2017

(Speech published on University Website, Vice Chancellor's Blog and Facebook Page)


Consul General of Australia Paul Murphy, Chancellor Jean Kekedo, Pro Chancellor Peter Eaefere, Council members, Honoured Guests, Business Houses, Students, Professors, HoDs, Faculty members, and Staff of the PNGUoT:

Welcome all to our Taraka Campus today, where tomorrow's leaders are forged.

Hereby, I declare the Academic Year 2017 officially opened.

Vice Chancellor Schram opening the 52nd Academic Year

UNITECH First Year Students

Today, we are all even more delighted than usual at the opening of the academic year to see our incoming first year students and that we got this far. Last year we almost did not finish the academic year, and we had to cancel many of our events and activities. We are happy that we left the 2016 academic year behind, and can run a normal academic year this year, with two 15 weeks semesters.

VC's Christmas Message 2016

Background

Against difficult odds, the PNG University of Technology was able to round up the 2016 academic year successfully. Fortunately, despite our financial challenges we will continue to be able to process the payroll on time in December and January. We thank you all for your hard work and support during this extremely challenging and stressful year. The night of 24-25 June was not a silent, nor a peaceful night.

Statue of St. Augustine

(Speech at the St. Augustine Parish for the Donation of a Small Statue of St. Augustine, 4 December 2017.)

Today, I would like to present a small statue of St. Augustine of Hippo (now Algeria in North Africa) to this parish which has been named after him when it was consacrated by Bishop Henry van Lieshout on 4th of June 2008.

Statue of St. Augustine in Pavia

Excellence and Transparancy in Research, Teaching and Operations

(Speech delivered at the Closing of 2016 series of UNITECH's 1 hour Tuesday research seminars, Rose Kekedo Foyer, PNGUoT Taraka Campus, 29 November 2016).

As always, it has been great today to be able participate in this very interesting research seminar. Thank you for inviting me and allow me to make a few closing remarks for this year's series.

Dr. Kaul Gena presenting his research at the seminar 22 November 2016

Let me cluster my remarks around three key questions. First, is there a standard of excellence for research? Secondly, what role do publicly funded research intensive universities play in the national innovation system? Third, what are UNITECH's contribution to research and innovation in PNG?

Vice Chancellor's Speech to Welcome Student upon Resumption of Classes 30 August 2016: 9 am

(under embargo until 12 pm, Monday 29 August 2016)

Duncanson Hall, Tuesday 30 August 9-10 am

Dear Students, Professors, Heads of Departments, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, we are happy to welcome back all our students. After only one and a half day of registration, almost 1,000 had already registered. Our student seem eager to go back to the lecture halls and resume their studies. We trust that you will continue to show this attitude through your behaviour at all times until the end of your studies.

Last Thursday, the first dinner was served in the temporary mess, which was set up by iPi in less than 1 month. We are very grateful for their efforts, which made it possible to re-open the university in record time. The criminals who burnt down the old mess, thought they had knocked out UNITECH for at least a year, or forever. Instead we rose like a phoenix from the ashes, and we are open for business again.

Ancient mythical phoenix 

​From the outset we have said to the students, that everywhere else in the world, students engage in religious, sports, cultural and political activities while attending classes. Voting massively for a class boycott in week 10 while not having a plan or strategy was therefore unwise. Even more unwise, was to postpone the return to classes on 5 June. Then it was postponed again until 20 June, but by that time acrimony among students prevailed, students refused to return to classes.

Meeting the police to stop the shooting and rock throwing