Leadership studies at DWU

EDUCATION

By KEVIN PAMBA
IT is encouraging to see public servants continuing to graduate from university programmes offered by Divine Word University (DWU) every year.
The 40th graduation ceremony of DWU’s main campus in Madang on Friday, March 11 this year saw many public servants along with their colleagues from other sectors graduate.
Others are still studying and would graduate in the coming years. The more civil servants and other professionals return to university and upskill themselves, the better it can be toward Papua Guinea’s ongoing need to address the governance, leadership and management challenges it faces. And it can only auger well for PNG’s national effort to address these challenges when civil servants study in DWU’s programmes where the Catholic university has a strong emphasis on ethics, which is taught as a compulsory subject across all programmes.
The highest ranking civil servant at the department head level to graduate from DWU in the recent graduation was the Commissioner of the Correctional Services, Stephen Pokanis.
Pokanis, his fellow public servants and professionals from other sectors studied through the flexible learning (FL) mode.
The flexible learning mode of study in DWU typically consists of four units (subjects) covered during two weeks of a residential component (lectures, tutorials and assessment work on campus) and 13 weeks of self-study with the support of the Moodle open-access learning management system.
Commissioner Pokanis graduated with a Master of Public Administration offered by the Department of Governance and Leadership in the Faculty of Arts &and Social Sciences.
The Master of Public Administration and Bachelor of Public Administration are programmes that were introduced by DWU in a partnership agreement with the Department of Personnel Management under its Public Service Workforce Development Programme (PSWDP).
“In 2011, DWU signed a partnership contract with the Department of Personnel Management in view of offering academic courses in Public Administration to current public servants both at the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree levels under the Public Sector Workforce Development Programme (PSWDP),” states the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences on its webpage.
“Both the Bachelor of Public Administration (BPA) and the Master of Public Administration (MPAdmin) programmes were developed by both DWU and PSWDP in mutual consultation to make these two programs more industry based.”
In 2013, DWU through the Faculty of Art and Social Sciences, introduced the Department of Governance and Leadership to host the BPA and the MPAdmin along with other programmes relating to governance, leadership and management.
Other programmes offered in the Department of Governance and Leadership are Master of Leadership in Development, Diploma in Project Management and Diploma in Justice Administration.
“The programmes are designed to equip and develop knowledge and competencies of public servants in the broad areas of public sector governance, leadership and management in order for them to deal with issues in contemporary PNG workplaces,” states the Department of Governance and Leadership on its web-page.
“The fast evolving workplaces in PNG are increasingly exposed to new challenges from the context of globalization and international benchmarking and best practices, which gives the department (of Governance andLeadership) the greatest challenge to come up with best formal training and education for adult working students which are also based on ethical and Christian values.”
The flexible learning programs are offered in the Madang and Port Moresby. The programmes under Governance and Leadership are presently offered in the Madang campus. Public servants and others interested in these programmes can enquire at the DWU Flexible Learning Centre via [email protected] or visit the DWU website (www.dwu.ac.pg)

• Dr Kevin Pamba PhD is a senior lecturer in Governance & Leadership in DWU.