Understand your program

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Students who apply for a particular program at any higher education institution should know the nature of their program and their rationale for applying. That is the expectation one has of a particular student enrolled in a program.

The decision to apply for a particular program is considered rational after students have considered their options, and after much consultation. This process means that one is required to learn more about the program before applying from their respective provincial guidance officers or other sources.

It is a bit confusing when you have students enrolled in a program like PNG Studies and International Relations who do not understand the program. One questions whether or not they filled out the application form or school leavers form by themselves?

The lack of understanding of this program is reflected in the online student unit evaluation comment segment. One or two students show in the comments they make that they do not understand the overall program they are studying.

Especially for the international relations component of the program, you have students saying I would like to learn more about this and that topic but the lecturer did not cover that or covered it briefly. Many make such comments with out realizing that there is another unit in the next year level that is designed to cover that topic deeply.

The program is designed in such a way that the learning experience is progressive. This is similar to many programs in other universities where you start off with the introductory units and then move on to advance units. In other words, the program is logically sequenced.

The introduction to international relations theory is the first unit in the international relations component of the program. Understanding the theoretical framework will help students to analyze and have a deeper understanding of how states and non-state actors behave.

It is of paramount importance that current and potential students consult the university website to view the program map. The information about the various units they will study and descriptions of the units are all displayed on the website.

Apart from the website, it is also necessary for the department and all other departments to explain well the nature of the program to current students. A departmental meeting is the best forum to share the information, so students have a good understanding of the program. The department has done that over the years. 

The annual open day is another information sharing event. Students from the various year levels discuss about the program and plan how they will explain to the public and other stakeholders the nature of the program.

It amazing how one or two students continue to show poor understanding of the program when evaluating a unit. Why is this the case every semester? Is it because they are narrow minded? Is it because they have no constructive comment to make so they just wrote what they wrote?

Another measure that one can use to state that a few students do not understand the program they are taking is the selection of research topics. They tend to select topics that are not connected to the disciplines that make up the program.

In recent years student have selected topics that are connected to education. That means one has to read about theories associated with the discipline of education which is not part of the program.

The Bachelor of Arts (PNG Studies and International Relations) is a unique home grown degree which merges different social science disciplines like; community development, anthropology, gender studies, literature, history, politics and international relations. The cross cutting nature of the program ensures that the students are empowered with a variety of knowledge and skills tailored to the PNG experience.

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There is no major or minor disciplines in this program. Students study all the different disciplines together. Such a cocktail is intended to help students understand the country in which they live in and other countries. This will help them make better decisions for the benefit of all citizens when in the capacity to do so.

The name of the program and the department can be misleading but if you study the program you will see that all the other disciplines are housed under the ‘PNG Studies’ tag. That means international relations is a stand alone discipline as expressed in the name of the department and the program.

However, that does not mean that international relations is a dominant discipline within the program. It is just an other discipline in the program like the others. There is an equal number of units representing the disciplines.

That means the ‘international relations’ name is misleading when you look at the program from this perspective. Why is one discipline given prominence compared to the others who are equally important?

The reason given for such a name for the program is because of marketability. However, there was no accurate data from the industry or stakeholders to support the need to add the ‘international relations’ name to the program and the department name.

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