Friday, May 22, 2015

CQU visits PNG

If you follow me on Twitter you would have seen that earlier this week I visited Papua New Guinea with Provost Hilary Winchester and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Nik Babovic. We visited the country for two reasons - one to attend the Australia PNG Business Forum - and two, to meet with our counterparts at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (UniTech).

Attending the conference was a real eye opener when it comes to understanding relations between our two countries, and linkages that exist with regards to skills and industry.

PNG is so close to Australia and we learnt that this proximity alone means there are many opportunities for us to work together more closely - particularly when it comes to education and training.

This thinking is particularly relevant to what we discussed with UniTech, by way of forming mutually beneficial linkages between our universities and specifically providing capacity-building capability from CQUni to UniTech.

Some of the initiatives agreed upon during our talks included CQUni mentoring and networking with senior leaders within UniTech (with a particular emphasis on female staff), and investigations into a potential accredited pilot program in logistics, to commence by distance learning, with local support in Lae.

Other areas of support being investigated include human resource policy, academic and research policy, quality assurance, management and leadership training, teaching systems, and student administrative processes.

All in all, I think this was a very successful trip and I can see many ways that CQUniversity can help UniTech in the future. Likewise i think there is also many ways that UniTech can help us. 




Hilary and I with PNG Minister for Trade, Richard Mula


Flying into Lae was an impressive sight


At our meeting with the management team at UniTech


A traditional farewell at the end of the Conference


Hilary meeting with the Prime Minster of PNG


It was great to wear my favourite shirt without any judgement


Guard Dog Security took care of our safety during the visit


The conference program included the opportunity to visit an Australian war cemetery, a great honour and priviledge

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