Students win scholarships

NINETEEN Papua New Guineans from a selected group of 30 successful awardees chosen from throughout the Pacific and Timor-Leste were honoured in Canberra with a presentation dinner and an opportunity to meet Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The Prime Minister’s Pacific-Australia Awards (PMPA Awards) are provided under the Australia Awards by the Australian Agency of International Development (AusAID).
They are designed to promote knowledge, education links and enduring ties between Australia, the Pacific Islands and the global community. 
Each award is valued up to A$25,000 (K54,850) and provides a combination of work placements and leadership training, to build an awardees’ academic experience.
The results are nation building through strengthening institutional capacity and leadership in the Pacific.
Each Papua New Guinean candidate was close to completing an Australian leadership scholarship or a post graduate level Australian development scholarship and was chosen on the basis of high academic achievement in their respective post graduate programme and demonstrated leadership capacity.
Each candidate submitted a work placement proposal that ties with the development objectives of PNG and that furthers the skills and knowledge they gained during their scholarship in Australia.