From overcrowding to lack of materials, UOG is a total mess

Letters

The University of Goroka (UOG) is in a total mess and the thousands of students enrolled into various programmes on offer will most definitely obtain substandard education if the current deplorable situation is not addressed.
The enrolments this year were from many sources: the school leavers that were selected after the national Grade 12 examinations, then about the same number was selected from a supplementary list, and many more from a reserve list, bringing the numbers to about three times what UOG could support using its current capacity.
Lecture rooms are overcrowded and majority of the students are sitting on the floor or on the aisles while many more stand outside and listen to lectures.
The lecture rooms in the main quads do not have enough chairs.
Rooms 35 and 37 do not have tables for students to write on.
The dining hall is used for big lectures but no white boards have been installed there.
The academic divisions have been appropriated less budgets this year and as a result learning materials are not printed and provided to students; instead some divisions have come up with a stupid idea of asking every student to create a web-based email account so that lecturers could email tests, assignments and lecture materials to students!
This is absurd!
Not all students have access to laptops, the computer laboratories are still close and the student server is not running.
All first year students have not been issued ID numbers yet so they cannot access ICT facilities.
Student dormitories are full to capacity and many students, including some on HECAS are living off campus.
The situation is really serious and those of us who entered UOG legitimately and have paid the necessary fees are disgusted by this mess the UOG administration has created.
We can’t raise it with the administration as the SRC has been dissolved by council.
We paid the 10 per cent fee increase this year and with the sheer numbers this year UOG cannot give the excuse of budget shortfall of K800,000 from the National Government.
We demand that UOG fix this mess it created and serve us well.
We also appeal to parents and other concerned authorities to come to UOG and see the mess we are in this year.
We do not know what caused this mess; some are saying that the elevation of two inexperienced ordinary lecturers to positions of pro vice-chancellors is the cause.
Others say the student administration staff accepted bribery and admitted three times the number of students that UOG can manage.
There is also word that some programmes that were not approved by the academic senate are on offer this year, hence the huge enrolment figures.
Others say that UOG is following a government directive to enroll more students, etc.
Whatever the causes, UOG is certainly in a total mess right now.

Concerned student
UOG, Goroka