UPNG sees drop in enrolments

Normal, Youth & Careers
Source:

The National, Wednesday 11th January 2012

By SALLY POKITON
UPNG journalism student

THE number of first year students enrolling for the 2012 academic year at the University of Papua New Guinea’s school of humanities and social science (SHSSS), the biggest school there, has dropped.
SHSS executive officer Herra Onno said the school accepted 350 school leavers yearly but this year only 291 eligible students were accepted this year.
Onno said this was because most school leavers from last year did not score the required grade point average even though the minimum GPA cut off mark for courses applied for had been reduced.
He said the school, which usually registered 1,300 first to final year students at the beginning of the year, would see fewer than 1,000 new students.
“The number of accepted students has dropped because candidates across the country did not do well due to the outcomes-based education,” Onno said.
He said almost 2,000 students applied for courses at SHSS but only 291 were accepted because most did not meet the minimum entry requirement.
“Political science, the course most students apply for, had its GPA reduced from 3 to 2.75, the same was with psychology. “In one particular strand – linguistics and modern language – only five school leavers were accepted from the usual 21 students in past years,” Onno said.
He said seven of the 11 strands in SHSS accepted fewer students for the year compared with previous years.
Onno said 751 students would continue with their second, third, and final year of studies respectively, while 57 students would discontinue studies this year.