By NIDRA KEWERE MAPI
THE University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) has called on the National Government to seriously address issues affecting national academics in tertiary institutions.
Acting ViceChancellor Kenneth Sumbuk said the Government needed to review the terms and conditions of qualified national academics that had to make sacrifices to meet the challenges of a depleted human resource that was experienced by universities in the country.
Prof Sumbuk mentioned that since the floating of the kina, UPNG had seen many of its senior staff leave which had led to them still trying to fill in the positions that had been vacated.
He said the university had not been successful in employing international academics because of the type of salary and conditions that was offered and because of the social challenges faced by the country.
“It is with these concerns that I call on the Gvernment to seriously re-look the terms and conditions that are offered to our qualified national academics,” Prof Sumbuk said.
He added that over the years, the university management together with its two staff associations had made presentations to the Government for improved terms and conditions but had not received any positive responses.
At the funeral service of the late lecturer Albert Nita, Professor Sumbuk said it was national academics such as Dr Nita who understood that students could not become good scholars without the support of good academics and meet the challenges of the academic world despite its shortfalls.
The late Dr Nita who passed away last week after a short illness was a senior academic and had been lecturing at UPNG since 1993.
He was trained and lectured in the field of science and geography and obtained a doctorate in environmental and sustainable development.
“The death of Mr Nita is a significant loss to UPNG. To train and develop a national to the level and expertise as attained and acquired by the late Dr Nita takes 30 years or more and the gap left will take many years to fill,” Prof Sumbuk said.
He added that UPNG was also short of highly qualified academic staff in many of the disciplines but they had learnt to manage the staff shortage.
Prof Sumbuk also said it was through hard work and dedicated staff such as the late Dr Nita who had handled the challenge well.