New uni bad idea, Basil says

 DEPUTY Opposition leader and Bulolo MP Sam Basil has described the proposed K80 million University of Western Pacific in Southern Highlands as a bad public investment. 

Basil lashed out at the government for its decision to establish the new university in Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s Ialibu-Pangia district. 

He said Papua New Guinea did not need a new university at this time. “This is a politically motivated decision on the part of an unjust government, which is seen to be encouraging and promoting regionalism and nepotism, thus destabilising national unity,” Basil said in a statement yesterday.

“The establishment of the proposed university and the most recent appointment of the Brigadier-General (of the PNG Defence Force) are clear evidence of the O’Neill Government’s one-sided decisions on national issues.”

Basil said the government should undertake investments in upgrading the institutional capacities of existing universities and other higher education institutions. 

He said such undertakings would produce talented Papua New Guineans of the highest academic standards who could stand on equal footing with university graduates from other countries and compete with them for employment opportunities locally and internationally. 

“The University of Papua New Guinea is expected to face financial difficulties this year with its budget deficit of over K80 million, which has accumulated over the past academic years.

“With such a huge deficit, the university’s budgetary appropriation for 2014 is expected to be absorbed in off-setting that, hence forcing the country’s oldest university to be financially crippled.”

Basil said funding for the University of Goroka had not seen any increase from last year when there was a shortage of staff housing,  furniture, office space, poor internet access, for academics, poor staff living conditions and the new five-star dormitory had yet to be completed because of the lack of funding.