With recent ties between the University of Papua New Guinea and Australian universities through Australian Aid (AusAid), the University of Papua New Guinea will see an eventual improvement in the standards of its Medical Faculty.
With recent sponsorship from AusAid, the Faculty has benefitted from upgrades to its facilities. Administration executive officer Philip Modudula says the new facilities will contribute, and have already contributed, to the increase in standards of the study programs for students at the faculty.
Mr Modudula said that the Medical Faculty had often been mistaken as being an institute separate from the University of Papua New Guinea, and has had its budget cut by the university as a result of receiving the AusAid donations.
Mr Modudula said that 90% of the university’s post-graduate students were from the Medical Faculty; hence it deserved a bit more attention from the university than it is currently being given.
Responding to the need for better standards of midwifery in hospitals, the AusAid organisation has already erected dormitories (midwifery dorms) for midwifery students, to help the faculty.
In addition, AusAid has also sponsored the faculty with new state-of-the-art dentistry machines. Also, the faculty is set to begin streaming live lectures from the James Cook University in Australia and the Otago University in New Zealand, via the video-calling application; Skype.
This is made possible by a newly furbished lecture room specifically designed to cater for that purpose. Other improvements to the faculty include Snake studies in connection with the Melbourne University to find and produce anti-venoms for the Papuan Taipan, which is a species of snakes indigenous to Papua New Guinea.