ABSTRACT
In Papua New Guinea (PNG), higher education institutions are those which provide post-year 10 education but they do not include National High Schools, and religious institutions which offer only religious or doctrinal instruction. Thus, the higher education sector consists of the six universities, the nine Community Teachers’ Colleges, which produce primary school teachers, the six Technical Colleges, the nine Schools of Nursing, the two Primary Industry Colleges, and a few other specialised colleges. Like universities in developed countries, the functions of PNG universities should be teaching, research and direct community service. However, unlike them, the emphasis should be on teaching because even University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUT), the two most prestigious institutions in the country, are largely undergraduate teaching institutions, with few staff doing world-class research and even fewer students doing research postgraduate degrees.
