Aligning University Courses to the PNG Government Digital Plan, A Challenge for the Universities in PNG

Abstract

The Papua New Guinea Government Digital Plan 2023-2027 has set the path for its digital future agenda, focusing on transforming public service delivery, improve e-governance and build the national digital ecosystem. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) as the lead government department has developed this plan as well as supporting policy documents such as the Government Cloud Policy, Data Governance Policy, Digital Infrastructure Policy and etc. According to the plan’s implementation schedule, the government wants to go paperless in 2026 and integration of AI technologies into public service systems and processes before 2027. This plan indirectly calls for and creates a demand for technically skilled labor force in emerging ICT fields like software engineering, data science, artificial intelligence, e-commerce and cybersecurity.

Meeting this demand will challenge the universities in Papua New Guinea on two fronts. First is modernizing the universities themselves as institutions and integrate ICT technologies in their administration and core business of teaching and learning. This is highlighted in the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST)’s policy document titled “Policy on Digitalization of PNG Universities Research Institutes. Second is to realign and modernize their IT program curricula to meet these digital demands in the industry. Therefore, this paper seeks to establish the status of IT related programs offered across seven universities in the country by analyzing the DHERST’s 2025 Continuing Student List, of students studying in all the universities under the Tertiary Education Study Scheme (TESAS) scholarship Then the particular subject units of the respective IT programs observed from the respective institutional websites to see whether current trends in ICT like data analytics, e-commerce, software programming and AI were factored in the program subject unit structure. The results will generate informed awareness of the shortfall in IT program curriculum reform across all universities and help formulate corrective action. This will ensure the IT graduates are job ready when they enter the job market when the PNG Government Digital Plan implementation gets momentum.