Plan to restart PNG universities

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The Papua New Guinea Government has announced a plan to resurrect the academic year at the country’s three main universities.

Classes at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) in Port Moresby, the University of Technology in Lae, and the University of Goroka were cancelled after protests by students against the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill sparked violent clashes on the campuses.

Higher Education Minister Francis Marus has announced a plan to effectively squeeze two academic years into the remainder of 2016 and 2017.

Acting chancellor of UPNG Dr Nicholas Mann said the 2016 academic year remains cancelled, but the 2017 academic year will be brought forward and start in September.

“The 2017 academic year will be brought forward to September 2016 and will go on until November 2017, so four semesters will run back to back between those dates,” Dr Mann told the ABC’s Pacific Beat.

“That will cut down on the backlog of incoming first year students in 2017 so those who were supposed to finish in 2016 will finish at the end of 2016 or by early 2017.

“That’s basically the ministry’s position that was released this morning.”

Although the decision to double up on academic and administrative workloads over the next 18 months is not ideal, Dr Mann believes it is better to resume classes as soon as possible, than to deal with the administrative overload in the long term.

“It’s better to do that now than to deal with an overload that could go on for five years until it normalises,” he said.

“The issue of the vote of no confidence has taken effect already, parliament has already sat, so I think the pressure is off so the students can come back with a more concentrated focus on how to complete their education. That’s our hope anyway.”

Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said the greater bulk of the student body had wanted to complete their student year, but this decision had been taken way from them by agitators with political agendas.

“We need to get the students back into class, and give them every chance to complete their studies for the year.

“There are still a number of details that must be discussed and resolved, but if all parties come to the table with the right attitude the Government is committed to resuming the academic year at UPNG.

“We also have thousands of UPNG students who should be in class right now, as well as a number of people who are employed by the university who are missing out on work and income.

O’Neill said if classes are to resume this should only be open to students who are committed to their education. - PNC