READERS will be aware of the turmoil that has surrounded the tertiary sector at the beginning of this academic year.
With one exception that turmoil appears to stem not from the universities, but from a disgracefully slack performance by elements of the Education and Higher Education authorities.
That exception is the tragic situation at the University of Technology in Lae. Should it continue unchecked, the nation’s only technological university might have to close for the foreseeable future.
Government interference on campus is generally to be avoided at all costs, and we respect the Somare Government’s reluctance to over-react, but the situation at Unitech verges on the uncontrollable.
The problems faced by the University of Papua New Guinea while under the direction of a former vice-chancellor are now a historical footnote.
The whole community should be grateful for the return to sanity under the new leadership of Prof Ross Hynes.
It seems that the grievously damaged spirit of UPNG is at last on the mend.
We look forward to the restoration of the determination to achieve excellence that was once the outstanding characteristic of both the academic staff and undergraduates of the nation’s first university.
The University of Vudal’s Vice-Chancellor Prof Philip Siaguru, appears to be in firm control as that university faces the new academic year.
Addressing students, Prof Siaguru named alcohol and its abuse as the single major negative factor affecting most universities in PNG.
That’s a sad comment on the lack of willpower of too many of our students.
Word from the University of Goroka suggests that the mountain campus is also poised to put the confrontations of 2007 behind it in a drive to regain lost credibility.
Universities are not intended to be holiday camps.
Academic freedom is a much abused phrase.
It does not mean nor has it ever meant a licence to practise anarchy.
The word “student” does not in any language known to us mean “leader.”
A student is one who studies and to study is to learn from others with far more experience of their subject and of living in the world.
University education is supposedly a process designed to produce a young man or woman who has specialist skills in a particular field, but much more importantly, knowledge and understanding and perception of how to live life to the best possible advantage of the community and the individual.
Universities are meant for those young men and women who are determined to discover and create and push back the obstacles and barriers that everywhere confront our society.
Academic freedom means that students and their lecturers can pursue studies that will grant them an unrestricted vision of the world and lead them into new and exciting fields of knowledge. It is vital that this new vision should encourage graduates to undertake the research our nation so badly needs.
The public is aware of the considerable vandalism and damage inflicted by students upon university facilities throughout the nation.
In our opinion, those students who seek to cover up unacceptable behaviour by mounting false smear campaigns against university administrations should be expelled.
Legitimate complaints should be handled via the many channels available to students and academic staff at our universities.
Only where there is grave doubt about the capacity of incumbent officers to administer a university or to deal with reasonable complaints, should outside authorities be involved.
The nation’s two major private universities, Divine Word in Madang and the Pacific Adventist University near the capital, do not appear to suffer from the ongoing conflicts that have afflicted our Government universities.
It is becoming perfectly clear that these universities are certainly pulling their weight on the tertiary front as enrollment numbers increase rapidly and the courses offered challenge the best that are available elsewhere.
This is not the place to consider why the private universities seem able to provide their students with an appropriate atmosphere for study, one that is thankfully free of stress and threat for all concerned.
But The National is pleased to note that PNG can boast such commendable universities.
We warmly wish all our tertiary institutions a creative and rewarding year – and we echo the hope that Unitech may be numbered among them.