Winning the Lottery of PNG Higher Education

A Papua New Guinean to get a place at any of the nation’s six universities and a range of lower tier tertiary institutions is akin to winning a lottery. It is a privilege that only the luckiest one  percent of the nation’s 6 million people enjoy now. 



2011 Enrollment time at DWU



Those like me consider ourselves amongst the most select of this one percent of the Papua New Guineans. Not only have we graduated from university but we have also completed higher education at its highest level, PhD, at international universities.  The women in this elite group are even more select in a country where the success of girls and women in education at any level is less than that for the boys and men.

So the lottery that is played out at the start of every year is witnessed at the start of 2011. There is the predictable intense jostling for the limited places available. Annually, thousands of students finish year 12.  In 2010 about 13 000 students matriculated. 

Such a high demand for higher education should be a blessing for the nation. Indeed, PNG would like the privilege of higher education to be enjoyed by many more of its citizens much sooner rather than later. In fact, the nation would like an additional 300 000 tertiary educated citizens by 2020 to support an anticipated economic boom, and improve its poor record on every human development indicator.  However, the current output from tertiary institutions is not more than five thousand per year. The target of 300 000 in less than ten years is a big ask.

And therein is the huge challenge facing the nation and those who demand higher education. The equation is simple: Demand far exceeds the capacity of institutions. Of those completing year 12, about half will find a place at tertiary institutions. Of these, it is reported that 3 650 would get funding assistance from the state in 2011.  In Divine Word University’s case, it has a capacity to physically accommodate 1500 students full time in total this year.  This could mean housing three to four students in one room intended for not more than two.

This is the nature of the challenge that must first be engaged with meaningfully by the state, the higher education sector and the tertiary institutions before the higher education sector can effectively respond to the national development strategy articulated in the 2050 Vision.