Institute offers clarification

THIS is with reference to the letter written by a student (Mirai Balthy, Madang) which appeared in The National on Thursday, Feb 8.
PNG Institute of Banking and Business Management notes the concerns raised by the student regarding the tertiary selection process.
While we empathise with the student, we would like to put it on record that IBBM had been allocated students through an algorithm generated by a software as part of the online selection process introduced by the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science andTechnology (DHERST).
This change is meant to bring transparency to the process. It automatically allocates students rejected by their ‘first and second’ preference institutes to others.
IBBM’s only criteria was the grade point average (GPA).
Only the best were selected by us for our Australian programmes.
It should be noted that the fees for the programme – K24,400 – is for an Australian Bachelor of Business degree and includes a laptop, meals on school days and internet on campus.
We provide an option of making the above payment in instalments – which has been opted by many parents. However, we do not offer accommodation to our students.
Our offer letter states these clearly and we leave the final decision of enrolment to the parents and students.
We, like all other tertiary institutes, have cooperated with and followed the DHERST-pioneered computerised allocation system.
Any mismatch between the institute and the student, however, is a result of an allocation process that was only introduced this year but will certainly improve over the years.
IBBM’s vision is to contribute to the building of the country, by mentoring and educating the brightest young minds.
It is heartening to know that we have enrolled nearly 60 students for the above said programme from across PNG.
We will continue in our endeavour to provide quality education and training.

PNG IBBM