UPNG Reforms Displace Thugs

It was like a scene from Mad Max 3, but these were the cream of society, an educated elite. They were the students of the University of Papua New Guinea who had turned into a mob that peace-loving city dwellers had come to know as the thugs and criminals hiding behind the comforts and routines of a once well regarded educational institution.

Because of the lack of monitoring and careful administrative scrutiny, students were being passed with good grades by their tutors and lecturers, who in most instances were complying with student demands for passing grades out of fear for their own safety and that of their dependents.

The University of Papua New Guinea, like many mainstream government institutions and agencies, was on the brink of total collapse. The tranquillity of the campus gardens-once known as a place for peaceful walks in the evenings-had become a notorious breeding ground for criminal gangs and drug dealers. Thuggish students had plenty of leisure in the evenings to intimidate the meek and weak.

A SWAT-team style analysis, with a quick reactive plan, was required to get the institution back on the road to academic and personal safety recovery before all hope was lost.

Vice Chancellor Leslie Eastcott talks with graduate students. Photo: John Rei

The government had run out of ideas and the National Council was in no position to secure a good Vice Chancellor to get the UPNG back on track again. The damage was done and no academic administrators who would qualify for the Vice Chancellorship-the highest administrative position at the university-were willing to take up the duty.

This is when an Australian academic administrator, known in New South Wales and Western Australia as Mr. Fix-It, arrived in Papua New Guinea to meet the challenge. Professor Leslie Eastcott is no newcomer to academic mayhem and has almost 35 years of success in reforming some of Australia most troubled educational institutions including the now-flourishing Charles Stead University in New South Wales.

Eastcott knew what he was getting into and had a grasp of what was to be expected, but the gravity of the situation was not clear to him until his arrival in Papua New Guinea in 2000. In an effort to boost morale and return the campus environment to normalcy, Eastcott chose to undertake a total SWAT analysis of the situation. Eastcott recalls his first days, driving home after 5 p.m. and not seeing a single soul around the campus.

Eastcott is someone who by nature likes to put up a good fight and struggled with finding a way in which to manage good influences that would foster change. During academic staff meetings he encouraged all of his lecturers and deans to look positively to the future as only when attitudes changed would there be change.

He began to enforce a close scrutiny of academic performances of students-a move that many academics were not comfortable doing. But with sheer determination and a lot of commitment, Eastcott was beginning to gain the confidence of the majority of the student coalition that would, at this stage, do anything to see change for their own betterment.

Eastcott also introduced a total compliance attitude toward the changes within the teaching fraternity and helped the deans to regain control in their respective schools. The changes even filtered down to the lower level in the massive UPNG structure, with the grounds keepers increasing their care for the surroundings, which had languished after many years of neglect.

Today, when you drive into the campus you will see students in droves, moving freely from school to living quarters, enjoying the evenings out on the gardens and also studying at night in the library, which is situated some 150 meters from the women's residence hall.

Eastcott is optimistic that with the new emphasis on the grades, students are beginning to show commitment and their improved academic performance is indicative of a reformed University of Papua New Guinea.

Another interesting concept was the introduction of the Teacher Learning Center that is referred to by many on campus as the TLC. A facility aimed at upgrading the academic capacity of the teaching team, the center runs courses on curriculum development.

For the first time, the UPNG has developed a Master Plan and Strategic Plan, and is setting benchmarks for improved learning. Eastcott is expected to complete another two years as Vice Chancellor of UPNG and is now held in great esteem and confidence by both his academic staff, management, his Council and, most importantly, the UPNG students who come from more than 10 different Pacific Island countries.