We have come together as Palestinian academics and staff of Gaza universities to affirm our existence, the existence of our colleagues and our students, and the insistence on our future, in the face of all current attempts to erase us.

The Israeli occupation forces have demolished our buildings but our universities live on. We reaffirm our collective determination to remain on our land and to resume teaching, study, and research in Gaza, at our own Palestinian universities, at the earliest opportunity.

We call upon our friends and colleagues around the world to resist the ongoing campaign of scholasticide in occupied Palestine, to work alongside us in rebuilding our demolished universities, and to refuse all plans seeking to bypass, erase, or weaken the integrity of our academic institutions.

• READ MORE: UN experts deeply concerned over ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza
• Israel’s war on Gaza live: Rafah ‘apocalyptic’ after ground invasion
• Other War on Gaza reports

The future of our young people in Gaza depends upon us, and our ability to remain on our land in order to continue to serve the coming generations of our people.

We issue this call from beneath the bombs of the occupation forces across occupied Gaza, in the refugee camps of Rafah, and from the sites of temporary new exile in Egypt and other host countries.

We are disseminating it as the Israeli occupation continues to wage its genocidal campaign against our people daily, in its attempt to eliminate every aspect of our collective and individual life.

Our families, colleagues, and students are being assassinated, while we have once again been rendered homeless, reliving the experiences of our parents and grandparents during the massacres and mass expulsions by Zionist armed forces in 1947 and 1948.

Our infrastructure is in ruins
Our civic infrastructure — universities, schools, hospitals, libraries, museums and cultural centres — built by generations of our people, lies in ruins from this deliberate continuous Nakba. The deliberate targeting of our educational infrastructure is a blatant attempt to render Gaza uninhabitable and erode the intellectual and cultural fabric of our society.

However, we refuse to allow such acts to extinguish the flame of knowledge and resilience that burns within us.

Allies of the Israeli occupation in the United States and United Kingdom are opening yet another scholasticide front through promoting alleged reconstruction schemes that seek to eliminate the possibility of independent Palestinian educational life in Gaza. We reject all such schemes and urge our colleagues to refuse any complicity in them.

We also urge all universities and colleagues worldwide to coordinate any academic aid efforts directly with our universities.

We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the national and international institutions that have stood in solidarity with us, providing support and assistance during these challenging times. However, we stress the importance of coordinating these efforts to effectively reopen Palestinian universities in Gaza.

We emphasise the urgent need to reoperate Gaza’s education institutions, not merely to support current students, but to ensure the long-term resilience and sustainability of our higher education system.

Education is not just a means of imparting knowledge; it is a vital pillar of our existence and a beacon of hope for the Palestinian people.

Long-term strategy essential
Accordingly, it is essential to formulate a long-term strategy for rehabilitating the infrastructure and rebuilding the entire facilities of the universities. However, such endeavours require considerable time and substantial funding, posing a risk to the ability of academic institutions to sustain operations, potentially leading to the loss of staff, students, and the capacity to reoperate.

Given the current circumstances, it is imperative to swiftly transition to online teaching to mitigate the disruption caused by the destruction of physical infrastructure. This transition necessitates comprehensive support to cover operational costs, including the salaries of academic staff.

Student fees, the main source of income for universities, have collapsed since the start of the genocide. The lack of income has left staff without salaries, pushing many of them to search for external opportunities.

Beyond striking at the livelihoods of university faculty and staff, this financial strain caused by the deliberate campaign of scholasticide poses an existential threat to the future of the universities themselves.

Thus, urgent measures must be taken to address the financial crisis now faced by academic institutions, to ensure their very survival. We call upon all concerned parties to immediately coordinate their efforts in support of this critical objective.

The rebuilding of Gaza’s academic institutions is not just a matter of education; it is a testament to our resilience, determination, and unwavering commitment to securing a future for generations to come.

The fate of higher education in Gaza belongs to the universities in Gaza, their faculty, staff, and students and to the Palestinian people as a whole. We appreciate the efforts of peoples and citizens around the world to bring an end to this ongoing genocide.

We call upon our colleagues in the homeland and internationally to support our steadfast attempts to defend and preserve our universities for the sake of the future of our people, and our ability to remain on our Palestinian land in Gaza.

We built these universities from tents. And from tents, with the support of our friends, we will rebuild them once again.

This open letter by the university academics and administrators of Gaza to the world was first published by Al Jazeera. The full list of signatories is here.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins faced a grilling by University of Otago students during his trip to Ōtepoti yesterday.

Students, staff and community members have been fighting against the university’s request for staff to consider redundancies in a bid to save $60 million.

But the students did not keep their questions to cuts alone.

• READ MORE: Other NZ universities reports

Hipkins got a mixed welcome with protesters chanting and asking for selfies with the prime minister.

Associate professor of politics Brian Roper said staff were already finding out that their courses were being cut and they were losing their jobs.

“I bumped into one of them. She was in tears, she’s absolutely distraught. What this government is doing to our universities is scandalous,” he said.

“Five out of eight of them are currently experiencing severe financial difficulties because of a chronic underfunding from this government.”

Declining enrolments
Hipkins said declining enrolments meant universities across the motu were finding ways to rebalance their books.

“I know that’s a really uncertain and uncomfortable time for the staff. The universities make their own decisions about how they manage their finances so it’s not something we can intervene on as a government.”

The prime minister attended a student association forum yesterday afternoon, making a speech before opening the floor to questions from students.

“I was just in a lecture where we’re doing course evaluations and my lecturer was begging the class to give a positive evaluation to keep her job. We have a $60 million budget hole, why can’t you just fix it?”

Hipkins said there was a lot of demand on the government’s coffers, and they could not cover all of the requests they got.

He offered no policy promises, telling students they would hear them well before the election

“Our rent has increased, the university’s spiralling down. I’m just thinking why on Earth should I be voting for you?” one student asked.

‘Most political answer’
Hipkins said: “I’ll probably give you the most political answer I’ve given you so far. The biggest increase in tertiary funding that we’ve seen in 20 years in this year’s Budget versus a government that actually wants to do the opposite of that.”

But his responses in regards to the National Party did not go over well with multiple students telling him to stop the blame game or saying what the opposing party would not give them, and instead tell them his policies and what he would deliver.

A yellow-suited monkey has become a feature of recent university protests — they want the government to bail out the university to save jobs and courses.

“I have a banana addiction as a monkey, but my Bachelor of Arts is being cut and I think that’s appalling. Millions and millions of dollars are sitting there which could bail out our university for underfunding, but he’s just not spending it, which he needs to,” the monkey said.

Earlier in the day, Hipkins toured KiwiRail’s Hillside Workshops in South Dunedin as it works on a multi-million dollar redevelopment to build a new wagon assembly facility.

Then he swapped a hard hat for a console, visiting three gaming development studios, after announcing $160 million to set up a 20 percent rebate for game developers in the recent Budget.

Hopeful over rebate
Balancing Monkey Games co-founder Sam Barham is hopeful the rebate could help them hire more staff and continue to do what they love.

Currently, he said developers made most of their money straight after releasing a game and then lived off that until they released another one.

“It makes a huge difference in terms of our ability to survive. It’s not the least risky business out there so we’ve got to think about how do we keep going. Our main aim is to still be doing this. It’s a thing that we love doing.”

The details of the rebate will be consulted on, but up to $3 million in rebate funding is likely to be up for grabs per year for individual studios.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Exiled University of the South Pacific vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia says he is thrilled at the prospect of returning to Fiji.

Speaking to The Fiji Times from Los Angeles in the United States yesterday, he said Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka — when he was in opposition — made a commitment to pay Fiji’s outstanding debt of $90 million to USP and to allow him to return to Fiji.

“Mr Rabuka said it, National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad said it, and the Social Democratic Liberal Party leader also said it,” Professor Ahluwalia said.

• READ MORE: Exiled USP chief, Dr Lal now free to enter Fiji, says Rabuka
• USP unions slam Fiji’s Sayed-Khaiyum for ‘damaging’ Pacific university
• Other USP saga reports

“So it’s part of all three parties’ manifestos and part of their public statements, so we as a university are delighted that this amount that has been outstanding for so long will finally come to the university.

“It’s excellent news, not just for the Fijian students but for the entire region because the region has been carrying Fijian students for quite a while and there will now be a chance for us to do a lot of things that we have deferred and not been able to do, particularly issues around maintenance.

“It also means we can now aggressively look for quality academic staff.”

Rabuka issued a statement on Boxing Day saying the prohibition order against Professor Ahluwalia had been lifted and he was welcome to travel to Fiji at any time.

Professor Ahluwalia and his wife Sandra Price claimed that on Wednesday February 3, 2021, 15 people made up of immigration officials and police stormed into their USP home and forcefully removed them at about 11.30pm.

They claimed they were driven the same night to Nadi International Airport and deported on the morning of Thursday, February 4, to Australia.

The FijiFirst government on February 4, 2022 issued a statement that the Immigration Department had ordered Professor Aluwahlia and his partner Sandra Price to leave Fiji with immediate effect following alleged “continuous breaches” by both individuals of Section 13 of the Immigration Act.

Government said under Section 13 of the Immigration Act 2003, no foreigner was permitted to conduct themselves in a manner prejudicial to the peace, defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public health, security, or good government of Fiji.

Fiji now ‘free country’
RNZ Pacific reports that Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad said all three parties in the coalition had promised this in their election campaigns and manifestos.

The former FijiFirst government have withheld the payments since 2019 over a protracted battle with Professor Ahluwalia, now operating in exile out of Samoa.

“They didn’t like a man who was doing the right thing who exposed corruption within the university,” Professor Prasad said.

“And it has done you know, to some extent, terrible damage not only to the university, but also the unity in the whole region.”

In July, the two unions representing staff at the university said the Fiji government owes the institution F$78.4 million and the debt has increased since then.

“Well, I can’t tell you the timetable, but all I can say is…that the university will receive the appropriate funding, as well as the government will pay what is due as a result of the previous government withholding the grant to the university,” Professor Prasad said.

His revelation comes after the government statement by Prime Minister Rabuka inviting Professor Ahluwalia to return to Fiji.

Personal apology
Rabuka said he wanted to apologise to Professor Ahluwalia in person upon his arrival for the way he had been treated by Fiji.

The prime minister has also invited the widow of exiled Fijian academic, Professor Brij Lal, who passed away on Christmas Day last year to bring home his ashes for burial at Tabia near Labasa.

Professor Prasad said they look forward to welcoming home more Fijians and expatriates exiled during Voreqe Bainimarama’s 16-year-reign.

“Fiji is now a free country. We will welcome everyone who wants to come to Fiji. No one should fear about any kind of vindictiveness or harassment,” Professor Prasad said.

“That is what we promised during our campaign, and that is what this government will deliver.”

Felix Chaudhary is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with Fiji Times permission. This article is also republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Professor thrilled over #USP return – #Fiji to pay $90m #university debt #AsiaPacificReport @fijitimes #rnzpacific @pal_vcp @ShailendraBSing @wansolwara @USPWansolwara @GeraldP87 #Fijipol #education #SitiveniRabuka @bimanprasad https://t.co/bC0ECuzF7d pic.twitter.com/laTlgEH3bf

— David Robie (@DavidRobie) December 26, 2022

A new initiative has been launched in 15 Pacific Island countries to improve educational standards.

The Pacific Regional Inclusive Education Review was launched last week with each country having their own national surveys with the assistance of community groups, NGOs and stakeholders.

It has has been signed by Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific education reports

The Pacific Disability Forum comprises one of the many networks used to complete the survey, and it has roots in 21 countries.

Its main objective is to ensure children, including those living with disabilities, access quality learning.

The Forum’s CEO, Setareki Macanawai, said the review allowed for an understanding of the current issues within education across the region.

“[The purpose is] to have a shared understanding, and I think this is what this review has done. It has provided a lens-key, a good starting point. A good starting point condition for us in the Pacific to then develop a shared understanding of what inclusive education should look like for us in the Pacific.”

Making education accessible
Macanawai also said it was hard to make education accessible in the region due to various pre-conditions.

“There is a lot of stigma, there is a lot of discrimination broadly and generally across the Pacific in the different cultures and societies which is a pre-condition that makes it hard to create an inclusive education for all, particularly those with impairments,” he said.

The review is conducted by UNICEF Pacific and the Pacific Regional Inclusive Education Taskforce.

UNICEF Pacific’s Chief of Education Programme Anna Smeby said the biggest challenge to inclusive education in the Pacific is limited access or children living in poor housing.

“We know that challenges can be in physical access, teaching approaches and availability of extra support, and it can be in the inclusiveness of the environment which means the infrastructure, but also social and emotionally whether it is a welcoming environment,” she said.

“Improving policy for inclusive education, building and strengthening to adapt and differentiate instruction, the resource in classroom so that they have the resources they need and improving school infrastructure, bringing inclusive education leaves us to learn from each other both the shared challenges and the promising practices.

Vulnerable groups
“Vulnerable groups include learners with a disability or some sort of impairment, commonly students in remote places who do not have access to full-cycle schooling and students who have missed earlier learning but also gifted and talented students that need additional support in different ways,” Smeby said.

The collaboration between the 15 countries, regional partners, and the Pacific Inclusive Education Taskforce, supports Sustainable Development Goal 4 to achieve quality education for all and to build a pathway for all children to a productive and healthy adulthood.

UNICEF Pacific’s Deputy Representative Roshni Basu said countries needed to include the review’s recommendations into its policies urgently.

“UNICEF is committed to ensure that all children of our Pacific shores are able to enjoy their right to inclusive, and of course quality, education.

I urge all countries to maximise effort and commitment to translate the review findings into concrete investments for inclusive education.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

A Papuan student advocacy group has called for the establishment of a future Aotearoa New Zealand scholarship for West Papuans to replace a controversial Indonesian-funded programme that left many students stranded this year with incomplete studies.

The call has been made by the Papuan Students Association Oceania (PSAO) as a cohort of students celebrated the graduation of two commercial pilots this month.

They also marked the success of fundraising and pastoral support for students who remained in New Zealand to complete their studies in spite of the hardships created by a sudden loss of Papuan provincial scholarships at the end of last year.

• READ MORE: West Papuan students secure future in New Zealand with new jobs
• Other Papuan student scholarship crisis reports

Community, faith-based, social justice and student groups have raised more than $70,000 in relief programmes aimed at assisting with accommodation, student fees and living costs.

Speaking on behalf of PSAO, student advocate Laurens ikinia, a postgraduate communications student at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), praised the help of many New Zealand groups which have in recent months filled the gap left by the “unjust cancellation” of Papuan provincial scholarships for about 40 students.

He said in a message to support groups and political parties which have assisted that the International Alliance of Papuan Student Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) and the parents and whanau of the affected students had expressed “thank you for your kind support and solidarity, generous donation, faithful prayers and moral support during our difficult times.”

Ikinia said that out of the 41 affected students, 12 had been forced to return to West Papua for several reasons.

Generous support
“The remaining 28 students who are currently studying at different tertiary institutions and one student at a high school have benefited from [New Zealanders’] generous support. All of them have gratefully expressed their gratitude and aroha,” he said.

“We sincerely thank you for being part of our life’s journey through the unprecedented struggle that we have faced. We will remember and cherish them for our lifetime.”

The message was conveyed to New Zealand while students were marking the success of Papuans Stevi Yikwa and Logi Karuri gaining their commercial pilot’s certificates at the Ardmore Flying School near Auckland.

Eight students who have completed their carpentry course at Palmerston North polytech UCOL have also been granted work visas through Pro-Construction in Manawatū.

Other students are at AUT, Canterbury University, IPU New Zealand, Massey University, Otago University, Unitec, Victoria University of Wellington and Waikato University.

As well as support from Labour and Green MPs, the students have been helped with fundraising efforts by the All Saints Anglican Food Bank, Auckland Central Parish of the Methodist Church, Church Unlimited, Dominican Sisters, Fielding Activate Church, Grace City Church (Palmerston North), Indonesian Catholic Community (Auckland), Indonesian Christian Community (Pamerston North), Onehunga Food Bank, Pax Christi Aotearoa, PNG community in Palmerston North, Rotuman Community Centre and Whānau Hub, Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, West Papua Action, West Papua Movement Aotearoa and many others.

The Papuans have also been boosted by support from AUT Melanesian Wantoks,  New Zealand International Students Association (NZISA), New Zealand Union of Students Association (NZUSA) and Taura Pasifika

Scholarships next step
However, Ikinia said the next challenge was to try to establish future scholarships for indigenous Papuans in New Zealand similar to those offered for Timorese-Leste and Pacific Islands students.

The Papua provincial government’s Foreign Scholarship programme introduced by Governor Lukas Enembe in recent years will wind up by the end of 2022.

Ikinia said one of the key factors in the ending of the scholarship was the loss of the governor’s independent authority over education funds under Indonesia’s controversial Special Autonomy Law (OTSUS) volume ll in the Melanesian provinces.

Also Governor Enembe’s second term is due to end by the end of 2023.

Commentators are warning that there will be “political and bureaucratic instability” in Papua due to the unpopular establishment of three new provinces that is being widely resisted by Papuan civil society.

Papuan students who are studying in New Zealand who are not on the scholarship termination list will still face uncertainty for the future.

The students are appealing to MPs and political party leaders, NGOs, churches, community groups, iwi, unions and other stakeholders to join their appeal for annual indigenous Papuan student scholarships.

• More information: Laurens Ikinia (PSAO student advocate)

Screams erupted as the sound of gunshots ricocheted around the open-air market. People ran.

It was bloody.

“I saw from my own eyes the gun violence,” says Laurens Ikinia.

• READ MORE:  Indonesian policy switch cuts off funding for Papuan students in NZ – Matthew Scott
• Why have scholarships dried up for Papuan ‘band of brothers’? – Mary Argue
• Papuan students form global umbrella body, reaffirm campaign for education rights
• How Google moulds public opinion on West Papua, disrupts education – Yamin Kogoya
• Papuan students succeed in NZ – ‘the golden generation from Papua’
• Mahasiswa Papua di luar negeri deklarasikan IAPSO – Tabloid Jubi [Bahasa Indonesian]
• Papuan students succeed in NZ – ‘the golden generation from Papua’
• Other West Papua education reports

“It was just crazy.”

Ikinia was still a child when he witnessed Indonesian security forces open fire at a market in Wamena, the largest highland town in West Papua’s Baliem Valley.

He says it was a massacre. It was later recognised as the 2003 Wamena Incident (or Peristiwa Wamena 2003 in Bahasa Indonesian).

What began as a raid on an armoury led to a two-month operation by the Indonesian Army and National Police. Thousands of villagers were displaced, civilians killed.

It was a response to increasing cries for West Papuan independence.

Some healing in NZ
The trauma of that day lasts, says Ikinia, but in the recent years, studying in New Zealand he has experienced some healing.

Ikinia is one of 125 West Papuan students in Aotearoa, arriving in 2015 and 2016 on a scholarship to study abroad.

He aspires to write Pasifika stories, about the people and places largely ignored by the international media.

He is close to completing a Master of Communications at Auckland University of Technology.

However, the domino effect of legislative changes in Jakarta means the 27-year-old stands to lose it all.

A couple of years before the violence in Wamena, Papua Provincial Governor Lukas Enembe established a scholarship programme for Papuans to study abroad.

The investment in indigenous human resources drew on Special Autonomy funds granted by Jakarta, but employed at the governor’s discretion.

‘Inspired thinking’
“It was inspired thinking on his part,” says Professor David Robie, retired director of the Pacific Media Centre and editor of Asia Pacific Report (APR).

“Get them educated outside West Papua, outside Indonesia, and come back with fresh ideas.”

But in 2021, the money dried up.

In a 20-year legislative review, the central Indonesian government passed a bill ratifying sweeping amendments to the Special Autonomy Law, effectively diverting money and authority away from the provinces.

Despite widespread opposition by West Papuans and calls for an independence referendum instead, the funds propping up several provincial programmes, including the scholarships were allocated elsewhere.

The fallout for the students abroad arrived in December.

A letter to the Indonesian embassy with a list of names — 39 students in New Zealand, and dozens of others overseas, were to be sent home.

‘Underperforming’ students
A translation of the letter says underperforming students and those who had not completed their study in the allocated timeframe would be repatriated by December 31, 2021.

Ikinia’s name is on the list.

“It doesn’t make sense at all,” he says.

“Based on my track record, I was one of the ones that completed the programme the fastest.”

He says all postgraduate students were given a three-month thesis extension due to covid interruptions.

“I am just about to finish.”

He says the decision to recall students is based on incorrect data held by the Provincial Government’s Human Resources Department Bureau (HRDB).

Many phone calls
“We have had a number of phone calls. It seems like people in the department don’t hold the data according to the latest results.

“It’s totally wrong. I did not start my masters in 2016.”

It’s politics, says Yan Wenda, president of the Papuan Student Association in Oceania, and a postgraduate student at the University of Otago.

“The central government in Jakarta changed the law without any input from the provincial government.

“They did the review, and in some areas changed how they managed the money between the provinces and the districts.

“It affects the students studying abroad.”

He says calls to the bureau confirmed this.

‘The money is not here’
“[They said] ‘the money is not here. It’s just not happening for you guys, you’ll have to come back home.’”

He says not only have successful students been recalled, but also the allowance for others has stopped.

“As students we are desperate to pay our rent. We haven’t had any allowance in two months.

“This is why we need to speak up about this.

“We have been victims of this change.”

A public statement issued by the newly formed International Alliance of Papuan Student Associations Overseas (IAPSAO) on January 27 urged the Indonesian government to consider the rights of Papuans to obtain a quality education.

Wenda and student presidents from the United States and Canada — where 81 students were recalled, Russia, Germany, and Japan signed it.

Sustainability of the governor’s policy
They requested the 10 per cent fund allocation for the education sector return to the Papua Provincial Government “for the continuity and sustainability of the governor’s policy to develop Papuan human resources”.

“Don’t kill Papuan human resources anymore with political policy.”

The students have since demanded that the Indonesian Embassy facilitate a dialogue with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

“It is a really sad development,” says Professor Robie.

“It’s all political by Jakarta. It’s all about self-determination, all about denying the rights of Melanesians in the two provinces of Papua to define their own future.”

He says the Jakarta government is uncomfortable with the student scholarships, and says the premise for repatriation was baseless.

“They are trying to curb the rights of Papuan students to get an education overseas.

‘Fundamentally changed’
“What has fundamentally changed is that (provincial) autonomy, that right to send those students to where they want to go.

“Those decisions are no longer in their hands.”

After APR reported on the issue, Dr Robie received a letter from the Indonesian Embassy, stating it was “appalled at the unfounded claims” made in the regional website.

The letter said the Indonesian government was committed to ensuring the right to education for all Indonesian citizens.

In response to questions from the Times-Age the embassy refuted claims that repatriation of students was politically motivated and said the HRDB did not recall students based on academic performance alone.

Length of study and the students’ disciplinary records were also taken into account.

A spokesperson said they could not speak to the accuracy of the information used recall students. However, they said the decision was the result of a thorough assessment by the bureau.

Conceded adjustments made
They denied budget cuts to the Papuan Special Autonomy Fund were responsible, but conceded adjustments were made to the “budgetary system”.

In response to the demands for dialogue with the president:

“[We] have duly engaged and in coordination with concerned students, Students’ Coordinator, student organisations, and the Provincial Government of Papua to further discuss the issue at hand.”

Wenda and Ikinia say scholarship students around the world are united in their stance, they will not return home.

“We are demanding our rights to education. We have no political agenda at all,”  Ikinia says.

“The government claims that we have a hidden political agenda, this is totally incorrect and unacceptable. We have been always participating in the events that the Indonesian Embassy has been hosting.”

When Indonesia staged a Pacific Exposition in Auckland in 2019, Papuan students actively participated in the event. Most of the Papuan students participated as local ambassadors to accompany the diplomats and delegations who came from the Pacific.

“I myself have also been the president of the Indonesian Students Association in Palmerston North and at the same time vice-president of Indonesian Students in New Zealand in 2018-19.”

‘Trauma healing’
Ikinia says West Papuans have become a minority in their own land, and suffering is not an anomaly.

“In New Zealand I realised how other people could treat us, like family,” he says.

“This is the treatment we should receive from the Indonesian government.”

He believes coming to New Zealand goes beyond academic achievement.

“It is part of the journey to find the potential in my life. And it’s part of the trauma healing.”

He says the New Zealand government is in a position to help the students, by acknowledging their Pasifika status.

“We are not Asians, we are Melanesians.

“We know NZ is a generous country that helps minority groups. We hope in this difficult time the New Zealand government will open its arms and have us as part of their Pacific family.”

Mary Argue is a Wairarapa Times-Age reporter. Republished with permission.

A major development out of the besieged University of the South Pacific has meant that two main characters in a saga that threatens the financial viability of the regional institution are now out of the University Council.

Controversial chair of the USP Council audit sub-committee Mahmood Khan of Fiji was voted out of the position at the council meeting that was held virtually yesterday.

However, he remains as one of Fiji’s 5 representatives in the council.

• READ MORE: Secret report revelations at USP
• Other reports on the USP saga

Equally controversial council chair and pro-chancellor of the university, Winston Thompson, will be replaced in the position by Hilda Heine, former President of the Marshall Islands, one of the 12 Pacific Island nations that co-own USP, together with Fiji.

She takes over the pro-chancellor and chair of the council position when Thompson completes his term on December 31.

Thompson together with the ardent support of Khan and Fiji’s Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum have been at the forefront leading moves to get USP Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Pal Ahluwalia removed.

This began with the leak to Islands Business magazine in 2019 of a confidential report authored by Ahluwalia alleging numerous cases of administrative and financial mismanagement and abuse by the previous university administration.

It saw the purported suspension of the VC by Thompson and Khan and culminating in his deportation together with his wife from Fiji in late January of this year.

Ahluwalia is leading the university from the USP campus in Nauru where he awaits the opening of flights into Samoa, where the office of the vice-chancellor will be now based.

Samisoni Pareti is publisher and managing director of Islands Business magazine. This article is republished with permission.

There was much excitement on the campuses of the University of the South Pacific when the latest Times Higher Education University Rankings were published, and USP was included on the prestigious international list for the very first time.

Understandably the vice-chancellor and the president wanted to trumpet the fact, but their suggestion that USP is now among the top 10 percent of universities worldwide is a little over the top.

There are more than 20,000 universities across the world, but the famous THE rankings include fewer than 1700 of them.

• READ MORE: Nauru president Aingimea accuses Fiji of being ‘divisive’ over USP funding
  
• LISTEN: ABC Pacific Beat
• Other USP rankings reports

And with USP rated in the band from 1000 to 1200, even the poorest statistician can probably work out that the university is not in the top 10 percent of the latest rankings, let alone in the world.

However Phil Baty, THE‘s chief knowledge officer, says an over generous statistical interpretation should not detract from USP’s achievement.

“Being ranked in the top 1200 in the world is still a really strong achievement. The Times Higher Education criteria are pretty demanding, we have 13 performance metrics, so in that sense, it’s a fantastic achievement. But we’re not really looking at all 20,000 institutions, we’re narrowing it down to a group of around 3000 or 4000 research universities,” Baty has told Pacific Beat.

However, as an international authority on university performance and strategy. Phil Baty is urging USP to be cautious with their future marketing strategies.

Set of challenges
“There was a bit of a set of challenges in Australia a few years ago actually, I think some Advertising Standards Authority said unless we are judging all 20,000, it doesn’t mean that you’re in the top 10 percent, because lots of different universities or higher education institutions have different missions, different goals.”

News of USP’s debut in the THE rankings comes at a time when the government of Tonga is actually planning to open the country’s own university, even though USP already has a campus in Nuku’alofa.

But Tongan student president Robin Napa’a believes there is room for both.

“Tonga Uni and USP can exist side by side….the option for higher education would be more available for the people here in Tonga to further their education and expand their knowledge,” Napa’a said.

And as the pandemic rolls on, the student leader says taking away the need to travel would be appealing for many Tongan students right now.

“USP has courses that are only offered on the main campus, so those students are required to go to Fiji to finish their degrees. But if Tonga University were to offer those courses here, then many students would prefer to stay with their families and study in an environment that is familiar to them.”

USP’s appearance on the THE list is all the more remarkable because it comes after months of controversy over the status of vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia and a governance crisis centred on allegations of serious mismanagement by the previous USP administration.

While his researchers were well aware of the problems at USP, Phil Baty says they were not a factor in assessing the institution’s ranking. However, he believes they could yet impact on its burgeoning reputation, particularly now that the university’s biggest donor Fiji has withdrawn its funding.

“We do run a reputation survey. So we survey 22,000 academics across the world to give their judgments on the university’s reputation for excellence in their specialist area.

Reputation metrics
“So it is fair to say USP hasn’t done very, very well on our reputation metrics, that may possibly be influenced by the turmoil.

“(But) when we look at the rankings, we really do just look hard and clean at the data. So as long as the students are still being taught, as long as the university is still producing research into the global journals, issues of governance don’t really creep into the immediate evaluations.”

And on that basis, Phil Baty says USP can make huge mileage out of its newfound recognition, but perhaps with a slightly more modest headline.

Duration: 6min 44sec
Broadcast: Wed 8 Sep 2021, 6:00am

This report is republished with ABC Pacific Beat permission.

Students of the University of PNG have taken the right step to demand that the authorities address harassment on campus, says the women’s wing of the Papua New Guinea Trade Union Congress.

Wilma Kose, leader of the wing, said the protest was the right thing to do as it would demand remedial action by the authorities.

She said the authorities must now inform the public on what action had been taken to address the issue.

• READ MORE: Media Council condemns ‘mob rule’ to intimidate female students, media at UPNG
• Other UPNG harassment reports

“The prevalence of harassment of the girls and mothers, left unattended for so long, has become a major hindrance to development progress,” she said.

“As a public institution for all Papua New Guineans which is largely funded by workers — half of which are women — we demand drastic action and responses from the university administration, Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology and authorities who should be concerned about such behaviour.”

Kose said girls and women who progressed to tertiary levels of education had earned their places by merit and deserved respect.

“We are not sending our daughters, our sisters or our mothers to be someone else’s punching bag to get harassed and assaulted,” she said.

Republished with permission.

Auckland University of Technology has responded to queries from a media aid watchdog about the future of the regional Pacific Media Centre based at the institution, saying that it remained committed to the centre and would not downplay its importance.

The head of the School of Communication Studies, Dr Rosser Johnson, said in an email to the Australia Asia Pacific Media Centre (AAPMI) on February 26 that “everything that the school is planning will, we believe, enhance its status and increase its visibility”.

He was replying to an AAPMI letter addressed to university vice-chancellor Derek McCormack on February 16 and made public by The Pacific Newsroom earlier this month which appealed for action to save the PMC, saying recent closure of the centre’s physical office came “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat and Pacific journalism programmes suffer from underfunding”.

• READ MORE: Who is killing off top Pacific journalism – and why?
• Concerns grows over PMC after shock office ‘closure’ and no director
• Pacific reaction to ‘end of an era’
• Outcry over signs of upheaval at PMC – Dateline Pacific
• LISTEN to RNZ Dateline Pacific

The centre, founded in 2007 and described by AAPMI as a “jewel in the AUT crown”, had worked in its Communication Studies office in the Sir Paul Reeves Building at the AUT’s city campus since it opened eight years ago.

The office was abruptly emptied in early February of more than a decade of awards, books, files, publications, picture frames and treasures, including a traditional carved Papua New Guinean storyboard marking the opening of the centre by then Pacific Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Winnie Laban in October 2007.

Dr Johnson replied that the school’s “senior leadership team” had decided that the PMC would be relocated from the 10th floor (WG10) to the 12th floor (WG12) of the main Sir Paul Reeve’s building to “bring it alongside the Journalism, Radio + Audio, Public Relations, and Critical Media Studies departments, all of which have had staff actively involved in the PMC in recent years”.

“This move will mean a one hundred percent increase in dedicated PMC office space … and guarantees at least as much space for postgraduate students enrolled in research degrees related to Pacific media topics as there was on WG10,” he wrote.

Puzzled over ‘new office’
However, PMC staff challenge this claim and are puzzled where this “new office” is supposed to be located. One staff member who did not wish to be named said: “Four desks have been put together …essentially. There is no notice or signpost to say where PMC is or if that corner is PMC”.

In the letter, Dr Johnson complimented former director Professor David Robie, who retired in December after leading the centre for 13 years, for his “many years of achievements and unrelenting advocacy of the Pacific within and without AUT”.

He applauded the “excellent work conducted in recent years by a number of students and staff”, including PMC’s Bearing Witness environmental project leader senior lecturer Jim Marbrook and cross-cultural affairs and international collaborations senior lecturer Khairiah Rahman.

Professor Robie himself is critical of AUT’s handling of the transition at PMC and the “trashing” of the old office and its taonga and memorabilia.

He wrote a letter to Dr Rosser in response to the AUT reply to AAPMI on March 5, saying that the school’s approach to the PMC had been “characterised in my experience, by a lack of honesty and transparency”.

He said the success of the PMC had been founded on its “autonomy and the contribution by its cross-disciplinary stakeholders as established initially under the faculty’s Creative Industries Research Institute (CIRI) and continued in the school rather than being located in a silo discipline”.

As outlined in the AUT University Mission Theme 3 directions, he said, the institution had “prioritised social, economic and environmental development” and was especially active in … responding to Pacific communities, and ethnic diversity, and playing our part in its development as a world centre”.

‘Excelled with objectives’
“The PMC has consistently met and excelled with these objectives as demonstrated in the annual reports and research publication metrics,” Dr Robie said.

He also appealed to the university to ensure that the people “who have worked so hard to make PMC successful” would be given a “rightful place in its future directions – they have earned it.”

Some of the PMC’s flagship publications, notably the 26-year-old research journal Pacific Journalism Review and Asia Pacific Report current affairs website, have opted to publish independently of the PMC umbrella.

RNZ Pacific reported on Monday that Dr Johnson had pledged that the “expressions of interest” in the director’s role would be presented to staff this week – three months after Dr Robie’s retirement.

It will be an internal appointment, not a “global” one, as the AAPMI had urged in its letter to AUT last month.

Republished from The Pacific Newsroom.

By Melanie Sison in Manila

Reopening of classes calls for community effort and not just schools ensuring the safety of students and personnel, an online forum heard.

Organised by SciDev.Net Asia & Pacific, the webinar event brought together experts on education from across the region to discuss ways to go about formal education under the new normal.

“We face the realisation that the third pillar of universities and higher education institutions — which is engagement with society — must stop being the poor sister of the other two pillars [education of students and research],” said Dr Zinaida Fadeeva, a visiting professor at Nalanda University, India.

• READ MORE: SciDev.net – Science and technology from an Asia-Pacific perspective

Dr Fadeeva said the importance of engaging with the communities plays a role in determining whether educational institutions should reopen.

“It’s defined by factors which characterise the functioning of individual universities, as well as society itself,” she said. “It’s about preparedness to treat people, it’s about the testing and tracing system, it’s about how people move, socialise, live, travel.”

Measures to ensure physical safety, including accessibility to covid-19 testing kits and medical facilities, however, also have to be balanced with students’ needs.

“The consideration of physical safety comes with the principle of not leaving anybody behind,” Fadeeva said, referring to the guiding principle of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Logistics organised around universities
“It’s about the whole logistics organised around universities and the region that would determine whether universities will open or not.”

Adjusting to the new normal means ensuring that students have access to education regardless of whether schools are physically open or not. It also means capacitating teachers and other educators to enable them to become more flexible and respond quickly and effectively.

Dr Fadeeva said that the covid-19 pandemic helped forge strategic partnerships, including between private and public educational institutions, that go deeper in community engagement.

A new possibility is the retooling of the methodologies of learning and action research employed by universities and educational institutions.

“New skills of bringing results of research to communities and the government also needs to be developed,” said Dr Fadeeva, adding that this kind of retooling could also bring different revenue streams.

She said that local governments and the private sector were potential clients and important given that universities have lost revenue because of the pandemic.

The education sector now also sees the bridging of schools and homes, said Professor David Robie, director of New Zealand’s Pacific Media Centre – “[The lockdown] enabled the opportunity to move out of schools and into homes”.

“Teachers have had to adapt and innovate to ensure learning is learner – and family-friendly,” he said. “Learners introducing their teachers and peers online have produced deeper personal level of connections that they can continue to build on.”

The internet has also allowed partnerships to be formed beyond the immediate community.

Dr Robie said that one gain from the covid-19 pandemic is the networking of academic institutions from different countries.

“We had very little contact in the academic context with much of Asia,” he said. Online conferences and webinars have allowed his faculty to work with members of the academe from the Philippines, Indonesia, and other parts of Asia.

“Education is not just about content; it’s about building relationships,” said Dr Robert Roleda, vice-chancellor for academics of De La Salle University, Philippines.

“One of the bright spots of this pandemic is that it showed us that there are actually ways wherein we can get more engaged with people from around the world.”

He said that the shift to online learning of education institutions is a reflection of how the internet grew.

“The development of Internet was enhanced by collaboration by the sciences,” he said.

This article was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk and was originally published on October 4. It is republished by the Pacific Media Centre with permission.

Staff of the regional University of the South Pacific have condemned the Fiji government’s “dictatorial” action in freezing a $28 million grant, accusing it of holding the governing University Council to ransom and jeopardising the future of students.

“Fiji is reneging on its commitment to its people and the region,” say the staff in a letter to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

The letter, signed yesterday by the university’s academic Association of USP Staff (AUSPS) and the USP Staff Union (USPSU) leadership, was sent in support of the 29,000 students following the grant suspension statement by the Attorney-General that has “sent shock waves across this regional institution to which 80 percent of graduates from Fiji are indebted”.

• READ MORE: Fiji suspends grants to USP over long-standing conflict
• More USP saga stories

Attorney-General Aiyaz Saiyed-Khaiyum was reported as saying the Fiji government – as the largest grant contributor to the USP – was concerned at the “continuous question marks about the lack of adherence to the principles of good governance in the day to day administration of USP”.

This came after months of conflict at the regional institution between the University Council and the Fiji-based university management.

It also followed recent exoneration by the University Council of popular Canadian vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia who had been targeted by two senior Fiji officials over his reforms.

Yesterday’s staff letter said: “It is poor governance when a single member state of the USP Council attempts to dictate its course of action.

Critical financial position
“The staff of the USP strongly object to the AG and Minister for Economy’s decision to cease Fiji’s grant contribution to the USP,” the letter said.

“This places the university in a critical financial position, jeopardising the education of Fiji students (80 percent) and Fiji staff (80 percent).

“This decision is viewed as an assault on the Fiji students and staff who, to date, in this covid and pre-covid environment of 2019 have been able to continue their education and work with minimum impact under the current vice-chancellor’s prudent leadership and council oversight.

“The government is seen to be using Fiji students and staff to dictate to and to hold the USP Council to ransom whilst holding a ‘gun’ to the head of the vice-chancellor and president.

“The action is tantamount to ‘cutting off USP students and staff legs at their knees’ and therefore their lifelines to coping with living in the current and post-covid environment.

“Not only will hundreds of families suffer, the quality of support and education for USP students in Fiji and the region will be seriously affected due to the domino effect of this decision.

“The question being asked is, why would the government use such strong arm tactics and punitive action to jeopardise the education of its youth who are their voters and the next generation of leaders when the USP’s supreme governing body of 12 regional states and development partners have spoken,” the letter said.

‘Mere pawns on political game’
“Rather than being treated as valuable citizenry, it appears that all are mere pawns
in a political game.

“The vice-chancellor and president is doing what every government, university, corporation and family business in the world needs to do to survive – reflect, redesign and reorganise.

To date, said the letter, no staff member had lost a job, no student had been refused admission – except for “mandated academic reasons” – and there had been an increase in student enrolments.

“The gravity of this decision and its implications require serious reflection on the basis of the decision and in-depth reconsideration by the Fiji government for the greater good of the students of Fiji and our Pacific `vuvale’ [canoe sail].”

Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry has branded the Economy Minister’s suspension of Fiji’s grant to USP as “simply childish”, reports Fiji Village radio.

Chaudhry said it looked like Fiji wass on its own, “like a lone wolf crying foul”.

The FLP leader said he was concerned that students’ university education would be affected and it would also affect the reputation of USP.

Let me start by putting my education cards on the table. I think public money should fund public schools. If you want to have a private school that’s fine but do it with private money.

I also think that our current model of funding schools that came out of the Tomorrow’s Schools neoliberal “reforms” has resulted in rich public schools and poor public school and that’s just wrong.

OK – now to the decision announced by Associate Finance Minister and Green Party Leader James Shaw that a privately run Green School will get more than $11 million out of the $3 billion set aside for infrastructure in the covid-19 recovery fund.

• READ MORE: Shaw apologises for signing off on funding for ‘green’ private school

Politically this is an own goal.

If you go to the Greens Education Policy page you will read:

• State schools should be funded so they are not reliant on donations, fees, or fundraising;
• Public funding for private schools should be phased out and transferred to public schools; and
• Public-private partnerships should not be used for building or running schools.

To argue that the money for the Green School is not coming out of the Education Budget but the Covid-19 Recovery Programme fools no one.

Betrayal raises issue of trust
It’s clearly a betrayal of policy and raises the issue of trust. Can we trust what else is written on their website is actually their policy?

I note that National’s Nicola Willis has been quick to label it hypocrisy and I can’t say she is wrong. However Willis is also guilty of hypocrisy on this issue because you can’t be pro public funding of private schools and cry foul when it happens.

Chris Hipkins washing his Pontius Pilot hands in public with his nothing to-do-with-me statement, simply reveals Labour’s neoliberal heart is still beating.

Did Finance Minister Grant Robertson also disapprove of this funding of a private school. If so why did it see the light of day?

Should we have green sustainable learning in our education system ?

Hell yes!

Shovels ready for school gardens
But in the curriculum for every school. Many schools around the country have got their shovels ready to create school gardens for example. Eleven million dollars would go a long way to creating them.

As I see it, the Greens have been effective on the Climate Change and on Poverty fronts, but they have also made decisions that have left me genuinely puzzled – such as giving up their Question Time slots in Parliament to National, shrugging their shoulders over the Water Bottling issue and now financially supporting a private school.

One sure way to lose an election is to keep scoring own goals and this was a classic.

Bryan Bruce is an independent filmmaker and journalist. The Pacific Media Centre is publishing a series of occasional commentaries by him during the NZ election campaign.

The Fiji Labour Party believes suspended University of the South Pacific vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia is being harassed for his attempt to clean up governance at USP.

In a statement, party leader Mahendra Chaudhry claimed the suspended vice-chancellor had been denied justice.

“We commend his stand to fight for the principles of good governance and for what is right,” he said.

READ MORE: Secret report reveals widespread salary and allowance rorts at USP

“USP has faced longstanding issues regarding excessive pay and allowances.

“It needs cleaning up and those responsible should be brought to task.”

Chaudhry said the party condemned the current controversy that had jolted the regional university, disrupting studies and bringing disrepute to it.

The suspension of the vice-chancellor had led to protests at the university campuses in the region.

“We understand Nauru is now calling for an urgent special meeting of the USP Council to discuss the crisis and we hope that justice will prevail.

“It seems that proper procedures were not followed, leading to calls by the USP Students Association for the USP Council chairman, Winston Thompson, to step down.

“The matter has been simmering for a year now, sparked off by allegations contained in a paper by the vice-chancellor.

“The paper highlights 26 allegations of mismanagement by the former vice-chancellor and senior management staff as either beneficiaries or decision-makers.”

Chaudhry said accountancy consultant BDO New Zealand was commissioned by the USP Council to investigate the allegations made in the paper, but that the BDO report had never been made public.

Luke Nacei is a Fiji Times reporter.

• More USP saga stories

A “fight for justice and good governance” at the University of the South Pacific has continued as staff and students have echoed strong calls for members of the USP Council to allow the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, to carry out his work without interference.

Hundreds of protesting staff and students rallied outside the New Administration Conference Room at Laucala campus in Suva, Fiji, yesterday with placards showing solidarity and support for Professor Ahluwalia as the special executive committee of the council convened a meeting to discuss allegations of “material misconduct” levelled against the vice-chancellor.

The meeting agenda allegedly included discussion about a letter from the deputy pro-chancellor about the claims of material misconduct, a report from the vice-chancellor in response to the allegations and a letter from the pro-chancellor in response to the VC’s report.

READ MORE: USP students, staff call on council to stop ‘harassment’ of Ahluwalia

Media reports said he had been told to “step aside” after this meeting. Professor Derrick Armstrong was reportedly appointed acting vice-chancellor and president to manage the affairs of the university.

Concerned USP staff member Elizabeth Fong said the show of solidarity for the vice-chancellor was also a call for good governance to prevail at the regional institution owned by 12 countries – not just Fiji.

“We don’t agree with what they are doing to [Professor] Pal. They are not letting him as VC do his work. Actual justice allows him to work by his contract, and if they had issues, there is a process and a way of managing it,” she said.

“The entire council of the university, which is regionally owned, needs to be part of any decision to remove a VC or suspend him so we are here to show that we want good governance to be put in place and to be practised by those who lead and govern us.”

Fong said it may be necessary for the USP Chancellor to step in to resolve the issue.

USP Students Association (USPSA) federal council spokesman Aneet Kumar said the students also wanted a quick resolution to the issue and made clear the student body supported the work done by the vice-chancellor done so far.

Kumar was joined by USPSA Laucala vice-president Shalvin Chand and USPSA deputy chair and vice-president Viliame Naulivou.

“There was a lot of outrage last year when the breaches of past management came to light,” Kumar said.

“Even the academics were pointing out that since we have a compulsory governance course, where is this going, what are we trying to teach and preach?

“There needs to be some common ground to reach. This is very disheartening for students. The student body sent a letter to the USP Council to express our disappointment at the way the matter is being handled.”

Students at Laucala campus also turned up with their placards of support, with student body vice-president Naulivou saying the believed the vice-chancellor had practised good governance.

“There are a lot of needs and wants out there but he [Professor Ahluwalia] came down to ground level and listened to us,” Naulivou said.

“That’s the only thing that pushed us to know the VC, his mission and vision. He visited the Lautoka campus and spoke to students, he begged students to say what they want. And what we want is good governance and transparency.”

Meanwhile, Professor Ahluwalia addressed staff and students yesterday saying he would continue to “fight for justice, transparency and accountability” within the legal framework.

The whirlwind of events started in March last year when the allegations of policy breaches of past financial decisions, such as speedy recruitment, appointments, promotions and questionable allowances for extra responsibility as well as breaches of the staff review procedures surfaced in a leaked confidential 11-page document drafted by Professor Ahluwalia and directed to the USP Council’s executive committee.

The University of the South Pacific journalism newspaper Wansolwara and website collaborate with the Pacific Media Centre.

• Commotion at USP over vice-chancellor’s suspension

A new council at the university of Papua New Guinea could soon be appointed, says an academic who led last week’s staff boycott at the country’s main national university.

Dr Linus Digim’Rina, head of the Division of Anthropology, Sociology and Archaeology, is a key member of the National Academic Staff Association (NASA).

Dr Digim’Rina said almost all university staff boycotted their duties for three days last week, following the suspension of the council in January.

READ MORE: UPNG shutdown crisis – the facts behind the turmoil

Higher education minister Pila Niningi cited allegations of corruption and sexual misconduct against the council in his decision to install an interim body.

But the interim council’s composition angered staff which led to the boycott, Dr Digim’Rina said.

“We avoided describing it as a strike action because there was no resolution from NASA … So it was a voluntary call on individual members of staff, everybody who are concerned about governance issues.”

On Wednesday last week, the minister accompanied by the government’s chief secretary, Isaac Lupari, met with university staff and undertook to take three actions, Dr Digim’Rina said.

‘New team altogether’
“One, complete the process of the appointment of the vice chancellor. Two, conduct an independent investigation into the allegations… And three, appoint a new council with a new composition, a new team altogether,” he said.

“That’s why we committed ourselves to return to classes last Thursday.”

The staff presented a list of names for appointment to the council which is subject to approval by the National Executive Council (NEC), Dr Digim’Rina said.

“That will be presented to NEC on Thursday, deliberated and a decision reached,” he said.

But some of the interim councillors could remain.

“The minister indicated during the presentation that he would like to keep not all but a few of his own appointees including the chancellor and that didn’t go down well with university staff,” Dr Digim’Rina said.

The chancellor, Jeffrey Kennedy, criticised NASA last week for taking industrial action on issues not related to employment.

Room for more
Kennedy said he expected his interim council to be in place until the end of the year but noted there was room for two more members to be appointed.

But the composition of the interim council does not adequately represent the university, Dr Digim’Rina said.

“A one-sided majority of the members have come from management, corporate administration and real estate backgrounds,” he said.

“There were also allegations rolling around… whereby the minister seemed to be bringing in friends and business partners into the council membership.

“Although it’s only an interim council it’s all to do with business. It’s not representative enough of the academic programmes within the university or civic organisations within society.”

Nevertheless, the need for new leadership “was recognised by university staff”, Dr Digim’Rina said.

“The previous council wasn’t necessarily performing at its best. We generally felt after so many years the council could have done a bit better,” he said.

Slow responses
But its performance may have been hindered by previous administrators, including the vice-chancellor and registrar, failing to implement council decisions in a timely fashion, Dr Digim’Rina said.

“I can say the previous council together with the previous administration, they were quite slow. The need for change was recognised by university staff,” he said.

“And in a strange way the minister’s intervention was quite necessary.”

As for completing the appointment of the vice chancellor, Frank Griffin had come through a robust selection process under the previous council that staff were “proud of”, Dr Digim’Rina said.

The minister, has appointed Kenneth Sumbuk as interim vice chancellor, who Dr Digim’Rina said was one of the candidates rejected during Professor’s Griffin’s selection.

But even though the minister had lost confidence in the previous council, he could not now claim to be sceptical of Professor Griffin, Dr Digim’Rina said.

“If that were the case the minister would have stepped in before the process was completed. Not after.”

This article is republished under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

The University of Papua New Guinea has for a long time been in need of far-reaching reform. But not all change is good, and what has happened this year at UPNG has taken the university in the wrong direction.

In late January, the Higher Education Minister, Pila Niningi, dissolved the UPNG Council, appointed a new interim council, and put in his own choice of vice-chancellor, all on the grounds that the old council was not performing.

You can see his reasons for the decision, basically a number of serious performance and integrity issues, in this just-released ministerial statement. It seems convincing.

READ MORE: UPNG interim council claims stop work by staff ‘illegal’

But what the minister has never mentioned is that the selection process for the position of UPNG Vice Chancellor was concluded last year and the result informally made public early this year. That process, widely regarded to be transparent and credible, resulted in the appointment of Dr Frank Griffin as the new vice–chancellor.

Just when everyone was expecting the formal announcement, the minister instead made his move, dissolving the old council and appointing a new council and VC. To make matters worse, the the minister’s choice of interim VC competed unsuccessfully for the position last year, and is the subject of serious and well–known allegations.

The government’s inability to explain the timing of its decision, and even to talk about last year’s VC selection process, let alone why it was overturned, goes a long way to explaining the sense of illegitimacy and controversy that surrounds the university’s new leadership arrangements and the protest shutdown by staff this week.

It is one thing to say that the old council was not performing. It is another to override, without explanation, what was widely seen as a credible process. That way lies disputation and worse performance, not better.

Registrar’s critique
The controversy will not fade simply with the passage of time. The recently sacked registrar has just delivered a stinging critique. University staff have now started protesting by stopping lecturing.

At his 2018 PNG Update address, Deputy Prime Minister Charles Abel spoke of the need for more Australian lecturers in PNG and more links between Australian and PNG educational institutions. But PNG cannot ask for such support and then behave however it wants.

Without some decent governance and adherence to good process, greater integration with the Australian education system will simply be impossible. At the regional level, UPNG is far behind the Fiji-based regional University of the South Pacific (USP), and what is happening now will only increase the gap.

The issue is also one for the Australian government. The now-retiring former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s flagship project, the Pacific Precinct, has UPNG at its heart, and a mandate around ethical leadership. Australia has just built three new buildings for UPNG.

All is not lost. Many at the university are unhappy. And at least some commentators are speaking out.

Trade Union Congress president John Paska has described the recent UPNG appointments as “horribly wrong”.

For now, friends of UPNG such as myself watch on in dismay. Reform, not needless turmoil, is what the university needs.

Professor Stephen Howes is director of the ANU Development Policy Centre, and leads a partnership programme between ANU and UPNG. This article was first published by the Dev Policy blog.

• UPNG shut down

Amid the debate over the issue of compulsory Te Reo Māori lessons in New Zealand schools that intensified last week, many arguments and opinions for and against were voiced.

Many New Zealanders support the idea of te reo being introduced more widely into schools, with overwhelming media coverage in support for compulsory Te Reo be implemented into the New Zealand core school curriculum by 2025.

But the question that has not yet been answered is whether it is possible or realistic, and the views of some who do not agree with the notion of compulsion have not yet been fully voiced.

READ MORE: Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 

It is an ongoing debate that has divided many New Zealanders in support of its implementation and those opposed to Te Reo being made compulsory.

Figures in 2013 showcased a drop in the numbers of Te Reo speakers in New Zealand by 4 percent in 17 years.

Among those opposing compulsory Te Reo is Renata, a student teacher in her final year of study of bilingual primary teaching (Māori and mainstream). She believes that implementation will be complex.

Not enough teachers specialising in the subject area is her concern.

‘Lack of teachers’
“There is already a lack of teachers, where are we going to find the teachers,” she says.

She adds that there is a need to focus more on supporting current speakers and teachers in the subject instead on using compulsion because currently there is such a shortage in the number of teachers.

There are many challenges ahead if it is made compulsory, she believes.

“What’s stopping us implementing Te Reo without it becoming compulsory? Do we need to force Te reo upon people to make them understand the importance or is it already becoming a choice of importance at people’s own free will.”

Tapa, a student of Māori law studies, is opposed to the idea of compulsory te reo in New Zealand.

“I think te reo should not be made compulsory, I do not like the term compulsory,” says Tapa, citing the “immense resources” that will be needed.

“Kura (School) are not always producing high level reo users, most rangatahi (young people) won’t even reply in reo. I think spend the money improving existing structures to a higher level,” he says.

To roll out nationwide implementation of Te reo into the New Zealand school system would cost a lot of time, money and resources, training and maintenance where there is already a struggling system to deliver basic modalities.

More support
“I think, and my reasons are influenced by Dr Tīmoti Kāretu that existing speakers of Reo should be supported to improve what they know and brought up to a higher level.”

There is not a set dollar amount for how much the government spends each year on te reo, but the general conservative figure is more than $100 million a year.

“That funding and resources should be spent in avenues where reo is already active to get it to a higher level and used consistently instead of mass production of mediocre speakers.”

Tapa has a suggestion for those wanting to learn Te Reo: “I think if you want your kids to learn Te Reo, send them to kohanga, and enrol yourself in Reo courses, and embrace te ao Māori (Māori world)”.

Concern for the quality of teaching and for potential students not being provided the full philosophy of the Māori view point and cultural emulsification into te reo will not be achieved by just providing teachers that know the language.

“If any random teacher was given just the language to speed up the process of teaching children, then it has no wairua (spiritual connection) attached to it.”

Māori culture
Te reo Māori does not come alone, it comes with te ao māori (Māori world), whakaaro Māori, tikanga, kawa and many other aspects unique to Māori culture, language and beliefs.

All these will have an effect on each and every single one of these Te Reo meōna tikanga (Competence in speaking, writing, comprehension, structure and the application of Te Reo Māori me ona tikanga) is integrate to have reo, substance and identity.

“We don’t give that just to anyone, especially if it against their will and do not have respect for the culture let alone the language,” he says.

There is a bright light at the end of the tunnel as more and more people throughout the country are willing to make the effort to learn Te Reo.

“Statistics are showing that there has been a major influx of people all over New Zealand wanting to learn Te Reo Māori,” says Renata.

She believes that more resources and funding is needed to support current speakers and to support people who are passionate about wanting to learn Te Reo.

Importance realised
“People who want to learn and are now learning to recognise the reality of its importance,” she says.

Renata understands the amount of work that will be needed for it to be implemented is a huge up taking and everyone needs to do their part to preserve the language.

But, people need to choose for themselves and those who are passionate about learning Te reo need to be supported and encouraged with the proper resources made available to facilitate learning.

“It is up to us as an individual, as a whānau, and as an iwi to maintain that as tangata whenua, it is not the responsibility of others to bring back something that we as a collective need to learn ourselves and pursue,” Renata says.

Current arguments fall to the need for New Zealanders to learn more about Māori point of views and learning a second language will support cognitive development in young children in their development.

There seems to be a lot of agreement that having a second language should be promoted and encouraged for school children.

Fear over choice
A lot of the fear of many parents is not being able to be given a choice on the second language their young one will learn.

Not many people are denying the importance of Māori culture and language in New Zealand, and is the duty of New Zealanders under the treaty to treasure and maintain the language for future generations, say advocates.

But a realistic discussion and debate on how to implement it will be beneficial for all.

While there seems to be a lot of emotion when the topic is discussed, no real attempt is being made to justify to the wider public the need for Te Reo to be compulsory without logical arguments to appease the fear of wider New Zealand.

Mike Maatulimanu Mohr is a student journalist on the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Journalism) reporting on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

Papua New Guinea has entered the third week of the eight-week election campaign before polling commences next month.

Unlike previous elections, this year’s campaign appears not as noisy as in the past.

Social media has played an important role in the campaign so far with political parties buying Facebook pages to launch their awareness messages.

Almost all the 15 political parties in PNG contesting the election now have a paid Facebook Page.

The ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) has reportedly disseminated a lot of information about its polices and continues running social media ads.

One of the PNC’s major party platforms is the Free Education policy. As the ruling party, it has implemented and PNG has felt its impact since 2012.

Like any other government policy, the PNC free education policy has its weaknesses. In order to defend this policy, party leader and Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said recently he wanted to make the PNC’s free education policy government policy so that future governments will continue implementing it.

‘Politically suicide’
In what looks like a counter attack, its rival Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party (THE) has issued a “politically suicidal” statement by party leader and Opposition Leader Don Polye saying it would scrap free education instead introduce a “compulsory and subsidised education” as it policy.

Polye went on to say that this policy would be a national policy if THE formed the next government, making it illegal for parents not to send children to school.

Firstly, THE party’s policy would make school compulsory, and secondly parents would need to pay from elementary to grade 12, but not at technical colleges and universities.

THE party wants government to take full responsibility to pay for develop the skills of those in tertiary institutions.

This policy sparked a response from Prime Minister O’Neill condemning the Opposition for developing “reckless policies” that could only set the country back, reverse development and undermine economic growth.

“This is the most reckless Opposition campaign to be seen in elections for a long time,” O’Neill said.

“These Opposition policies would hurt families, would see people miss out on education and have funding decisions taken away from the local level and returned to Waigani bureaucrats.

“How could anyone think that ending free education could be a good thing?

“Under our government, it does not matter if a family is rich or poor, urban or rural, we will make sure all of their children are able to attend school,” O’Neill said.

Some implications
Let us look at some of the implications of THE Party and PNC on their education polices, leaving aside other issues for a while.

Under PNC’s policy, there would be more children going to school because it is free to attend school from elementary to high school and perhaps colleges (some colleges are still paying fees this year at some colleges).

This will see an increase in the grades 8, 10 and 12 dropouts. These dropouts will add to the number of unemployed youths and unskilled laborers. After 10-20 years, there will be an increase in the number of school leavers compared with today.

This is a situation whereby students from well-off families may enroll further in private schools or take further studies abroad but this number is always a minority. PNC’s free education policy creates issues in the long-term but it may look good in a short-term.

THE party’s policy on education will put pressure on poor parents to firstly send their children to school or they be jailed for not sending and to pay their fees in full.

This is a harsh policy by THE party whereby parents would need more counselling on family planning as any child born must be educated by law and they have to meet the cost up to grade 12.

It is tough for parents but in the long-term it will benefit the country largely. Firstly, by concentrating on paying fees for higher education and colleges will ease parents of their financial burden.

Literate population
Secondly, compulsory education would produce a literate population and that is good for a developing country. Today, many young people are not going to school and are roaming the streets — even if it is free to go to school.

But when there is a law to force students to attend school, there will be no children on the street begging as we see today in cities like Port Moresby, Lae and Mount Hagen.

The PNC and THE party’s policies on education have both negative and positive implications.

The term or the phrase “free education policy” is in fact not proper because nothing is free, it would be better to say subsidised fees than to say free education.

Nothing is really free. It is not free to get educated, rather the government is using people’s tax money to subsidise the cost of education.

This confused phrase of free education is a brainchild of the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM)  which led two governments under Paias Wingti and Sir Mekere Mourata as Prime Ministers who implemented this policy.

The policy was fully implemented during Sir Mekere’s term as Prime Minister in 2000.

Before the Bougainville war
Before the Bougainville civil war, tertiary education at the universities and colleges was fully subsided (students were also given monthly allowances) when Panguna mine was in operation.

But after the Bougainville conflict there was a new “user pay” policy so all the benefits of allowances and fully subsidised fees for tertiary studies were withdrawn and students had to pay for university and college education.

This means that Don Polye’s education policy will bring back the glory days prior to the Bougainville conflict when PNG enjoyed a fully subsided education at the tertiary level.

All in all, Peter O’Neill’s education policy is short-lived and may put pressure on the government budget to continue funding as the population increases each year.

Don Polye’s policy may look tough from the start but it is not a new policy in PNG to fully subsidise education at the tertiary studies. The new thing will be compulsory for every child in PNG to attend school.

For a country like PNG, we need a good policy on education and Don Polye’s policy will save Papua New Guinea for the years to come.

Peter O’Neill’s short-lived policy might mean Papua New Guinea would face social and unemployment problems and economic problems as the population increases.

Don Polye’s policy will also have an impact to control the population and I think this is a very good proposal for PNG.

It is my personal guess that Polye’s policy is what PNG needs and it speaks of more maturity than O’Neill’s, which lacks sustainability.

You decide which policy you need at the polls.

• PNG Electoral Commission updates

It is highly ranked in the Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings 2017.

There are three categories in THE’s Young University Rankings — top 50 Generation X universities (1967-1985); top 50 Generation Y universities (1986-1999) and Millennial universities founded in the 21st century.

AUT ranks number 14 in the world and number one in Australasia in the millennial universities category.

The Young Universities Rankings, previously known as the THE 150 Under 50 Rankings, has now been extended to include 200 institutions.

Applying the same performance indicators as the overall THE World University Rankings, young universities are measured on their teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.

The methodology for these rankings has been carefully recalibrated, with reputation counting for less, to reflect the special characteristics of younger universities.

Institutions in Belgium, Brazil, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom also feature in THE’s Millennial category, which focuses on the youngest universities in the world.

AUT is the only university in Australasia to feature in this category.

THE concluded that millennial universities generally have low levels of income and research productivity, compared with their older counterparts.

However, their analysis found that they are the strongest age group when it comes to producing internationally co-authored research, when compared with “Generation X” (1967-1985) and “Generation Y” (1986-1999) universities, as well as the cohort of institutions founded in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

They also outperform every other group bar Generation X on citation impact.

World rankings

Despite being expelled from secondary school and suspended from teachers college, AUT Professor Welby Ings’ new book is about a lifetime of inspirational teaching.

Disobedient Teaching: Surviving and creating change in education was launched at Auckland University of Technology tonight.

Professor Ings says he wrote the book because he has for a long time questioned the “dehumanised systems of learning” and New Zealand’s preoccupation with micromanaging teachers.

“In the book, I question the obsession we have with assessing performance, and argue for higher levels of creativity in learning, teaching and educational management,” he says.

Disobedient Teaching takes a stand against our national obsession with testing and reporting. It calls for higher levels of teacher agency and learning that operate away from the restrictions of performance indicators, predetermined criteria and tick-box teaching.

Professor Ings argues that “positive disobedience” is a fundamental teaching behaviour among successful practitioners, and the ability of excellent teachers to change learning and learning environments is predicated on it.

His book examines creativity, assessment, passion, our obsession with “success”, and how teachers influence change. To do this it tells stories from the chalk face. Some are funny and some are heartbreaking, but they all happen in New Zealand schools.

Disobedient Teaching suggests that the essence of what makes a great teacher is the ability to stand up to, and change educational practices that have been shaped by “anxiety, ritual and convention”.

In the face of New Zealand’s increasing and uncritical political obsession with accountability and reporting, his book argues the transformative power of teachers who think, critique, defy and act.

• Professor Welby Ings criticises NZ ‘performance obsession’
• Disobedient Teaching

Penisimani Fifita has been moved from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Ministry of Education.

Kaniva News reports the Prime Minister, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who was Minister of Education, has been reassigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said King Tupou VI had granted the ministerial re-assignments recommended by the Prime Minister last Friday.

The changes are in line with provisions in Tonga’s Constitution which stipulates the Prime Minister may assign and re-assign ministries to and among Cabinet ministers.

The ministerial re-assignments were effective from last Monday.

Fifita as Minister of Education and training will now have to deal with the Raw Mark examination system implemented by his predecessor last year, which has caused much anger and criticism by education professionals in Tonga.

During the Pacific Tertiary Education Forum this week it was revealed that despite Pasifika students obtaining NCEA Level 3 they are then going on to do a degree ‘unmatched’ to their subjects studied in high school.

Tim Fowler, the chief-executive of the Tertiary Education Commission, spoke at the forum in Auckland. He referred to the issue as an “under matching” between NCEA attainment and the transition to tertiary.

Because of this many are then entering into a level one tertiary course to gain the required subjects needed in their decided career path.

He said the launch of new TEC education tools would hopefully aid educators in addressing and finding solutions to the issue.

This includes a new online education tool, Qlick, that will be launched by TEC in November. It will allow educators to access live data on Pasifika achievement levels and patterns of study.

Fowler also said in 2017 tertiary providers that offer Level 5 qualifications or higher will be required to inform school leavers with in-depth data about each qualification on their organisation web-pages.

Lack of staff

Those who attended the forum also got a chance to raise their concerns around the lack of Pacific staff in the tertiary sector.

They said although the enrollment of Pacific students are increasing, Pacific staff in the workforce remain low.

“Nothings changed…I strongly plea to you if you can make that a priority in some way to incentivize TEO’s (Tertiary Education Organisations) to committing to raising Pacific work staff.”

Listen to the full audio story on Pacific Media Centre’s SoundCloud channel:

Papua New Guinea’s long standing university student unrest is costing the country’s higher education sector financially, and is also damaging its international reputation.

Higher Education Secretary Prof David Kavanamur gave this verdict at the second departmental heads meeting today after students have been locked in an up to six-week protest over national politics, demanding that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill resign.

However, Kavanamur said the situation was not all bad.

He said the University of Natural Resource and Environment at Vudal “has been running academic programmes for two months now,” while both the Divine Word University and Pacific Adventist University “are intact”.

At the University of Goroka, Secretary Kavanamur said the students had been home for two weeks and the administration aimed to sort our their issues within that time.

Speaking about the situation at the University of Technology — before the latest attack last night killing a student and setting fire to several buildings in an unrelated issue —  Kavanamur said “full credit” to the vice-chancellor, Professor Albert Schram, for “holding the place together” despite tensions being high.

The government’s main concern now was the University of Papua New Guinea’s main campus of Waigani.

‘Running full swing’
However, Dr Schram said, the School of Medicine at the UPNG’s Taurama campus was “running full swing” along with the postgraduate programmes.

Kavanamur told the meeting that, for medical students, the unrest had meant those scheduled to graduate in 2017, would now be graduating in 2019 instead.

Another unfortunate consequence of the unrest is damage done on plans to attract more international students to the country, which Kavanamur described as a “major reputational risk” that needed to be addressed.

Apart from international reputation, the unrest had also put a financial drain on the higher education sector.

“Possibly K15 [NZ$6.6 million] to K20 million [NZ$8.9 million) already, that’s money that we could be spending on prioritised areas.”

He indicated that academically, drastic decisions might be made soon.

“We are coming to the end of that period whereby the academic senate will meet to decide on the tenability of the academic programme.”

Serah Aupong is an EMTV News reporter.