Registration at the beginning of every academic year has always been a stressful process; both for parents and students.
This year, instead of hosting the process inside poorly ventilated buildings, the PNG University of Technology in Lae’s Taraka campus has opted to set up outside instead.
With natural ventilation and more breathing space, students are comfortably seated under marquees, waiting for their turn to register.
Another first for Unitech this year is the new payment option that they have adopted; BSP Pay.
As long as the customer has BSP mobile banking, they can pay for tuition fees using BSP Pay.
Today is the first day of the weeklong 2024 orientation and registration program.
One of the parents, Pedro Peter, from Western Highlands Province, already had two of his sons graduate from Unitech, and now he is registering his third son for his first year in accounting.
“When it comes to paying our fees, it takes a lot of time,” Peter said. “You have Papua New Guineans flooding into Unitech, we want to get our child registered and get a dorm before we can go.
“For my other two sons, I would normally stand in front of BSP bank and it would be a long queue. Sometimes we’ll finish at 6pm, other times they’ll say, come back the next morning.
“I’m very happy to see, right now, I see the sign saying BSP is helping with payment here. This is very, very good.
“They’re making it very easy and we still have time to move around.”
Another parent, Golda Inapero, travelled all the way from Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, to register her eldest son for the first time at Unitech.
She breathed a sigh of relief when it took her only 10 minutes to open his account.
“I’m heading back to Goroka tomorrow and I had to open his account before I go. That’s when I saw BSP setting up on campus,” she said.
“I just walked over and asked if I could open my son’s account and they said, if you have his Grade 12 certificate or his NID or school ID from his previous school, just provide those and we’ll open his account in just 10 minutes. This is more efficient and effective and I’m super happy with BSP. Thank you for taking the initiative to set up here at PNG Unitech. It’s convenient for parents like us, who’ll be traveling back to our domicile.”
The weeklong registration program will include a Marie Stopes health awareness this evening, an alumni session on Tuesday evening and the official welcome program on Thursday.