The recent bullying incident at one of PNG’s premier university has revealed an ongoing trend of intimidation on first-year students by senior students at the University.
The father of a first-year Applied Physics student at the University of Technology said his son was a victim of “bullying” by senior students on campus on Friday, 25th, February 2022.
Paul Toll said if his 20-year-old son had not left his room that Friday evening he would have met his fate, describing the attack as “attempted murder” and “criminal in nature”.
Mr Toll said on Friday afternoon, his son was intimidated on his dressing code and threatened not to talk to girls on campus.
In the early hours of Saturday, 26th February, a group of senior male students numbering 30, broke open into his son’s room where his belongings including mattress, clothes and safety boot were looted during the raid.
The father said his son had moved out of the campus prior to the raid after they had threatened him earlier on Friday evening to give his room number. Mr Toll added that bullying must stop and has asked authorities to address such behaviour.
Department Of Higher Education, Research Science and Technology Secretary, Dr. Francis Hualupmoni said the Department condemns the behaviour by those students involved.
“UoT is an academic institution and not a place for rogue students. I encourage all institutions of higher learning to develop strong policies and or by-laws to prevent bullying, including sexual harassment.
“In doing so, they protect the security of students and enhance the quality of learning,” he added.
Meantime, the University of Technology in response to questions raised by this newsroom said; “The University of Technology is a ruled based institution and is governed by established set of rules and regulations. All students must adhere to this set of regulations.”
Unitech’s Director for Public Relations, Steven Busin said the University will come down hard on incidents of bullying.
“An investigation into the incident is currently ongoing and students identified will be dealt with both by the Student Disciplinary Committee and Police.
“Both investigations will run concurrently. Students allegedly involved in this incident will be both dealt with by the University and law,” he stated