New Medical University to appoint council members

Papua New Guinea's Medical University is preparing to appoint its new council members.

This appointment will lead to the selection of the university's top management and the recruitment of academic staff.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News yesterday, the executive dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Professor Nakapi Tefuarani says the interim council will be appointed soon.

"For the new university, we are using the President system. So we will have a President and three Vice Presidents that will look after the three big divisions in the new university. One is the Clinical Sciences, and then you have the Health Sciences, and then the Corporate, the other big group is the Corporate Faculty." Tefuarani said.

He says once the Interim Council is in place, it will appoint the university's senior management team.

He explains that at the University of Papua New Guinea, the Vice Chancellor leads the structure with three Pro Vice chancellors.

However, for the new Medical University, the head will be called the President.

"The registration number will be somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500, so the aim is after five years from now, we will have more than 2,000 students enrolled," he said.

Professor Tefuarani says the approval of the medical university bill in the recent parliament sitting was timely and preparations are going well.

He added that the government has also approved over K500 million to support the start of the 2026 academic year.

Professor Tefuarani says the 2026 academic year looks promising, with plans to increase student enrollment from 900 to over 1,000.

"The National Executive Council, through the minister, are now working on to appoint an interim council for the new university, so it may take couple of weeks, then we will have an interim council, and those are the powers of the government." Professor Tefuarani confirmed.