Speedy Decision

Expected On

P-Ng University

From a Special Port Moresby Correspondent It is taken for granted in Papua- New Guinea that the Commission now deliberating on tertiary education will recommend the establishment of a university for the Territory. The $64 question left unanswered is how soon it can be made to happen.

IN early August, the Commission appointed to inquire into the needs for higher education in P-NG completed its public hearings and re turned to Australia to examine in de tail the structure of tertiary educa tion in the main centres of Austra lasia.

Since its appointment by the Minis ter for Territories, Mr. Hasluck, in February, the Commission has scarcely drawn breath in travelling around Australia and P-NG. In a series of conferences in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, the three members (Sir George Currie, Pro fessor O. H. K. Spate, and Dr. J. T.

Gunther), first sketched an outline for their operations. Since then, they have been busily filling in the picture.

It seems that by the time their re commendations come before Cabinet, very little, either in the way of tech nical organisation of institutions of higher learning, or of public opinion nn New Guinea’s educational needs, will have escaped their scrutiny.

Public Sittings

The Commission heard evidence :rom 191 people in the Territory, and Tom others in Australia. The sittings, leld in public, were interesting for evealing what the Commissioners vere coming to decide, as much as vhat the public thought. It is now be yond question that the Commission vill recommend the establishment of i university probably in or near Port Moresby.

The Commissioners have indicated hat technical questions such as the vailability of buildings and lecturing taff are the only considerations af ecting the early launching of tertiary ducation for New Guinea. The Gov rnment would like to have a univer ity functioning next year, to help lunt the sharp attacks of interna lonal critics as much as to accelerate he development of the country. But

it seems impossible before 1965, and unlikely before 1966.

The Commission was given broad fields to roam in while conducting its inquiry—but there was a clear ministerial direction implicit in the terms of reference that a university would be set up in New Guinea. The advice required by the Government really came down to how and when this could best be done.

The terms, announced by Mr. Hasluck, called for a report on the means for further developing tertiary education to meet the present and prospeclive needs of the Territory.

The Commission was asked to consider, in producing this report, the numbers of students available, their qualifications, requirements and opportunities; the best means of affording Territory residents access to university education; the range of courses, degrees and diplomas; standards of entry and graduation; the staff and facilities likely to be needed; ways of integrating schools of medicine, agriculture, administration and teacher training, already established, with a Territory university; and the relationship of any Territory institution with universities in Australia.

The Commission was asked to recommend in detail where any new institutions of tertiary education should be established, how much they would

cost, and how they should be run. It was warned that its recommendations must be closely and realistically re lated to Territory needs and condi tions.

All this was to be considered, “hav ing in mind the declared policy’ of the Government on higher education in Papua and New Guinea”. That policy, of course, had been laid down two years earlier by Mr. Hasluck when he announced the planning of an Ad ministrative Staff College for Port Moresby as the first step in establisb m? a Territory university, With so much taken for granted, as hardly surprising that the

JY®, .°* . Commission aroused

mterest m it s public sittings, P LI . c servants dutifully expounded their views, sometimes departmental, sometimes private. Native leaders, businessmen and missionaries came forward to accent points that were their special mterest.

T , D *• rhe Reactionary Planter Only one person in New Guinea spoke against a university in the Ter ritory—a planter from the Madang area.

Sir George Currie, chairman of the Commission, observed privately, later, that he had been surprised to find even that one instance of reactionary thinking, publicly expressed, Mostly, the hearings were dull ses

sions and few witnesses seemed to try to answer a dozen or so leading ques tions supplied in advance to guide their testimony.

Some witnesses rode favourite hobby horses—the need for technical education; the dangers of ignoring a Christian foundation for study; the relative merits of science and the humanities in a predominantly peasant and agricultural country; the need to relate courses to the New Guinea environment; the need to give students access to the full depth of civilised experience.

Perhaps the only complete blue print for the development of tertiary education was put forward by the Director of Education, Mr. Leslie Johnson.