MY job is done. We have completed what we have envisioned,” said the University of Goroka Chancellor, Joe Wemin before cutting the ribbon for eight different projects at the UOG’s main Campus in North Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, on Friday, 21 June, 2024.
Before the appointment of Mr Wemin and the current council members in 2021, reports indicated that UOG was behind other universities not only in Papua New Guinea, it was also reported to be lowly rated in the Oceania region.
Today, the council has set a new course and direction for the university by first of all launching the strategic plan 2023- 2027 as well as the corporate plans 2023 to 2027, in August of last year to reform UOG.
This is the intervention of Mr Wemin with his council members, Vice Chancellor Dr Teng Waninga with staff and partners. They formulated the two plans in which the university is working towards achieving the objectives of the corporate plan by implementing the strategic plan. On Friday, June 21, 2024, stakeholders of University of Goroka saw it as the dawn of a reformed University of Goroka as following events unfold:
Launching of James Aiwa Special Education Centre including the Academic Audit report; Academic Restructure Plan, 2024 – 2027; Annual Work Plans 2024; and Strategic Implementation Action Plans 2024 which were developed from the strategic plan 2023 - 2027.
Commissioning of the first two completed projects which are two staff duplexes and a security house; and
Ground breaking ceremonies of the student’s new dormitory and a new ablution block. Currently under construction is a multimillion- kina Central Administration building for the university.
Other notable achievements happening under the leadership of Mr Wemin and Dr Waninga include:
the elevation of the pay structure of UOG academics this year from grade 16 to 19;
800 new approved positions for academics adding increasing the staff ceiling to more than 1200;
Sponsoring of UOG academic staff abroad to get their PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) while maintaining them on payroll;
Students and lecturers going to China Normal University and Shanghai University in China for development programs; and
Successful completion of the academic audit and restructure by UOG lecturers in partnership with some of the leading universities from Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and US.
These were done to address the decline in quality teaching and learning, and the low rating for UOG as the third last university in the Oceania and fifth in PNG. The deteriorating effect demanded intervention by the government to make immediate appointments of the current regime to save the university.
Within the span of two years, UOG became a fast-developing university striving to be on par with other top leading universities of the world “Today we have come to a stage where I am very confident that the university of Goroka will be recognized among other university in the Oceania. It will be recognised as one of the top University in Papua New Guinea - that’s my belief,” said Mr Wemin.
“I told the council that our job at the university is over, I think I don’t have anything to do at the university anymore. I think our vision for the university, in terms of reforming the university has come to a stage where we have completed what we have envisioned, what we have targeted and the management has progressed to a level where they now begin to see changes in the university.
“The infrastructural development and all those that happened in the university are a result of leadership. “If we had not intervened, the standards and quality of the output of University of Goroka will decline. “The investigation revealed that the attrition rate was very high, 69 per cent; annual ranking of the University of Goroka was third last in the Oceania region and fifth out of the universities in PNG.”
“The University of Goroka exist by the University Act but operationally it was operating on a college organisational structure, you (staff) were paid at college level,” Mr Wemin mentioned. “There were a lot of issues affecting the University.We inherited a lot of legacy issues so we were determined to reform the university, and I attribute all these achievements to the strong leadership of vice chancellor and your TMT, the support from the staff. “I also attribute the progress to the distinguished council members that are so serious in reforming UOG.They are experts in their own fields. “We want to position university in its proper place in nation building and to do that we have to get our back yard strengthened.
Those problems needed to be addressed; We have to build a strong university in terms of the organisational and administrative structure, and the academic programs. “We realised that University of Goroka is the only university the government has entrusted with the responsibilities to produce secondary school teachers.
“Couple of years back, University of Goroka was able to graduate 500-600 teachers when the national demand was around 1200 plus so the nation was down by 50 per cent of the teachers required. “So, having seeing all these, we realised we have to take some drastic intervention and with the quality advise from the council and the support from political leaders, we reform the university.” Mr Wemin said the university council and top management team of UOG had set a new direction for the university. “We have a bigger dream for the university,” he said.
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