Satellite campus opens

CHIMBU is the first province in the country to have a “satellite” university centre for its students to do courses.
A fully furnished double-storey building, which is the first of a number of buildings to be erected for the University of Technology (Unitech) Centre, was opened on Monday in Kundiawa.
The opening was attended by Governor Noah Kool, his deputy Alphonse Kee, administrator Joe Kunda Naur, Unitech Vice-Chancellor Dr Albert Schram and Acting Pro-Chancellor Peter Eafeare.
Kool said it was an historic occasion and a milestone for the province because it would ultimately make way for a fully-fledged university for the province.
Kool told a big crowd that the satellite campus was set up to make tertiary education more accessible for Grade 10 and 12 school leavers in the province who had scored good marks but could not make it into Unitech due to spacing issues.
The governor said the free education policy of the government had created a bottle neck in the education system and many eligible students were being left out.
He said his government noticed this and set up the satellite campus to assist this category of students.
He said the provincial government had spent K630,000 to have the building constructed.
Schram thanked Kool and the people of Chimbu for supporting and embracing the concept of a satellite university.
He told the crowd that Unitech would enrol a special quota of diploma graduates each year for degree programmes at the Taraka Campus in Lae once students completed their diploma studies at the satellite university in Kundiawa.
Unitech’s Pro Vice-Chancellor administration Dr Kaul Gena said Unitech had limited spacing to enrol all eligible students and was embarking on a countrywide satellite university programme for provinces that were willing to support the concept.
He said the university was focused on delivering most of its diploma programmes through the satellite universities.
The Chimbu Unitech satellite campus will offer IT, business studies and communications for development initially and expand to include other programmes.