WHILST we boast about the number of universities we have in Papua New Guinea, I have not heard of any of these universities been audited using internationally recognised institutional auditing tools and/or instruments to be in par with what is currently happening in Australia, New Zealand or other countries.
The University of South Pacific in Fiji is currently preparing for an audit team to arrive from Australia to rate its academic and institutional quality in line with international standards.
For the awareness of the general public, good practice and in particular academic audits have assisted universities improve and develop quality assurance and quality enhancement processes.
An important outcome of audits is the identification and affirmation of good practices, as these can offer impetus to on-going enhancement.
Quality university audit processes, among others, have facilitated and assisted enhancement, viewed as a vital ingredient in a university’s programme, complements other quality improvement activities, and the reports should assist universities in improving their own programmes.
Whether university audit has ever been done in PNG is a big question in the light of the current problems faced in our universities.
If audit has not been conducted to date, then someone is trying to cover up something, meaning there is no transparency.
Papua New Guineans have the right to know where their universities are in respect to other universities in the world.
If this is not done, then something is wrong somewhere and someone has to be responsible for failing to foster quality academia.
It is high time Papua New Guinean universities invite Australian and New Zealand University Audit Association so that our universities can be rated correctly.
The Higher Education minister or another authority in PNG needs to look into this matter urgently.
Otherwise, we will be facing similar problems in our universities year in year out at the expense of the silent majority who do not know what a real quality university degree is worth when compared internationally.

Koare Konda Naisi
Via email