Council can revoke fees: Czuba

THE interim council of the University of Papua New Guinea has the authority to revoke an increase in compulsory fees imposed by the former council, an official says.
Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology Secretary Fr Jan Czuba was responding to a statement by the Registrar, Peter Petsul, who said he was yet to receive a formal communication from Minister Pila Niningi on the decision not to increase the fees.
Petsul said: “We want the DHERST to write to us and tell us of their decision but they haven’t done that yet so in the absence of that we have constituted the legal one which is approved by the university council. “We cannot rush into making that decision of the K2939 compulsory fee. We have sent our compulsory fee notice well before the revocation of the council and the revocation of the acting vice-chancellor and the notice has already been published.”
But Czuba said the interim council had made that decision which was relayed to the registrar to execute.
“The minister (Niningi) can only appoint the council which appoints the vice-chancellor. In this case, the interim council had made a decision to revoke the increase in fees and instructed the registrar to go back to the (2018) fees,” Czuba said.
“That is the role of the council.”
He said Niningi as the minister was not in a position to instruct the registrar because it would “compromise the integrity and autonomy” of UPNG.
He said Petsul should understand the “autonomy” of the university.
“The power to establish the fees is with the (interim) council, not the minister,” he said.