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PAPUA NEW GUINEA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, LAE

1. General administration No untoward incident was reported, at least from the students’ side. As regards teaching staff is concerned, the services of Mr. Jimmy Keake, Senior Technical Instructor 1 in Mathematics, were terminated by the University. The Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Evelyn resigned and the semi-skilled worker, Mr. J.L. Rouga, retired after having served the Department for a long time since the very inception of the University. Mr. Sipa Benny, Technical Instructor in Computer Science also resigned. However, he continued to assist the Department as a Part-time Tutor. All of them were given a farewell on 15.04.2008. The teacher – student relations have been fair and no serious complaint has ever been made against any staff except strict marking / evaluation by some of the staff especially Mr. John Shadlow (Sr. Technical Instructor II in Maths.), Mr. John Wamil (Lecturer 1 in Maths.) and Dr. S.N. Pandey (Visiting Associate Professor in Maths.) on some occasions. The new building constructed for the Department was handed over by the contractors in February 2008, but it is still not furnished. It is not usable because of lack of telephone and computer installations. Control of air-conditioners has not been transferred to the Department. As a result, the Departmental Office is still continuing on the First Floor of the old block of Electrical Engineering building. This accommodation is quite inadequate to accommodate all the teaching faculty, Office and other staff. The ceiling of this old building has been leaking throughout and the toilets were in awful condition. Of late, renovation of the building is being done and the toilets are also under repair.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, LAE PERFORMANCE REVIEW Name: Prof. Dr. R. B. Misra Position: Head Department: Mathematics & Computer science Academic Years: 2007 / 2008 1. General administration No untoward incident was reported, at least from the students’ side. As regards teaching staff is concerned, the services of Mr. Jimmy Keake, Senior Technical Instructor 1 in Mathematics, were terminated by the University. The Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Evelyn resigned and the semi-skilled worker, Mr. J.L. Rouga, retired after having served the Department for a long time since the very inception of the University. Mr. Sipa Benny, Technical Instructor in Computer Science also resigned. However, he continued to assist the Department as a Part-time Tutor. All of them were given a farewell on 15.04.2008. The teacher – student relations have been fair and no serious complaint has ever been made against any staff except strict marking / evaluation by some of the staff especially Mr. John Shadlow (Sr. Technical Instructor II in Maths.), Mr. John Wamil (Lecturer 1 in Maths.) and Dr. S.N. Pandey (Visiting Associate Professor in Maths.) on some occasions. The new building constructed for the Department was handed over by the contractors in February 2008, but it is still not furnished. It is not usable because of lack of telephone and computer installations. Control of air-conditioners has not been transferred to the Department. As a result, the Departmental Office is still continuing on the First Floor of the old block of Electrical Engineering building. This accommodation is quite inadequate to accommodate all the teaching faculty, Office and other staff. The ceiling of this old building has been leaking throughout and the toilets were in awful condition. Of late, renovation of the building is being done and the toilets are also under repair. The departmental meetings are listed in the Annexure 1. Mr. John Shadlow takes the charge of students’ registration, preparation of time-table and does many administrative jobs in compilation of examination results. Not all the faculty members responded favourably in submitting their Lecture Plans or getting themselves assessed by the students at the end of the semesters. Dr. Chris Wilkins is one of them, who always discourages this activity. The large combined classes of Engineering Mathematics because of the inclusion of both degree and diploma students together various disciplines (Applied Physics, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mining Engineering and Mineral Processing Engineering) comprise over 300 student. This is of great concern. I am very seriously considering dividing such large classes into manageable groups of 50 – 60 students. Often there are complaints from the students’ side, either of poor visibility or of lower volume of the lecturer. In spite of my best efforts no progress could be made to improve the situation. I also brought this matter to the notice of higher authorities in the University Administration but not even a single light that may focus directly on the white boards in the RK Lecture Theatre could be fixed. The students are often reluctant to submit their complaints in writing and always seem to be eager to discuss at length their academic problems verbally. This takes a lot of valuable time. Although there is no proper space for the Departmental Head and the Office and a small cabin, where I sit, is not cooled at all, yet I make myself available in the Department for consistent hours. I hardly ever leave the office before 6 p.m., even on the week-ends. 2. Quality Assurance 2.1. Syllabus: The syllabus of all the Mathematics courses is so haphazardly arranged that there is repetition of many topics in different Programmes. It is a hard and time consuming exercise but it is badly needed. In most technical universities, there are mainly two – three types of mathematics courses: (i) More applied courses with rigour on theory and practice for main engineering branches – civil, electrical, mechanical, mining etc.; (ii) Advanced courses for agriculture, applied sciences, architecture and forestry etc.; (iii) Elementary courses for other faculties: arts, business, commerce, life sciences (biology) etc. On contrary, one finds over 150 courses of Mathematics for different Programmes run in 13 Teaching Departments in this University. Therefore, it is highly desirable to streamline the courses as per above scheme. 2.2. Students evaluation: Students are normally given 2 – 3 written tests, 2 – 3 carry-home assignments and puzzles in every semester. Their performance on these tests etc. is counted while examining them in the semester final exams. General observations are very discouraging. They often do better in the assignments but not in the tests and exams. Often they do plagiarism in preparing their assignments or projects. Most of the students have very poor academic background especially in mathematics. Though it may be difficult to implement but my suggestion is that they should be given one year / two semesters preparatory courses in core subjects: language, mathematics and one or two more subjects suiting to their programmes of study. This will help them in coming up to understand degree / diploma courses. 2.3. Staff evaluation: The teaching faculty is assessed by students at the end of semester. The most common comments given by the students are about the accent of speech (especially in case of expatriate staff) or finding themselves unable to cope with the speed of lecturing. 3. Postgraduate studies and research 3.1. Diploma Programme: The Department conducted Diploma Programmes in Mathematics for the Higher Secondary teachers in the Lahara Session. It ran for six weeks during December 2007 – January 2008. Fourteen such students attended the Programme. The following topics of Mathematics were covered. They were given written tests and examination at the end of the session. 1. Numbers and Number Patterns, 2. Functions and Graphs of functions, 3. Exponents and Logarithms, 4. Trigonometry, 5. Periodic functions, 6. Vectors and Matrices, 7. Geometry, 8. Calculus, 9. Statistics and Probability, 10. Complex numbers. The following faculty members (including me) of the Department taught above courses: 1. Prof. Dr. R. B. Misra (HoD), 2. Mr. John Gesa (Deputy Head), 3. Mr. John Wamil, 4. Mr. Jimmy Keake, 5. Mr. John Lanta, and 6. Mr. Jefferey Ambelye. 3.2. Other PG Programmes: Currently, no other postgraduate programmes are running in the Department. The Department badly needs full-time senior faculty members to run the postgraduate courses. Currently, the Dept. has 6 Ph.D.’s (all expatriates including me), 4 M.Sc.’s and 3 Bachelor degree holders as full-time faculty – 2 of them (expatriates) could join only in the second semester of 2008. In order to teach over 30 courses (each with a number of tutorial classes depending upon the size of the class), the Department needs additional hands. The extra teaching load is managed by the services of part-time teachers. In the last semester (of 2008) 5 part-time tutors were recruited. 3.3. Research: Myself and Dr. S.N. Pandey completed the following research papers: Prof. R. B. Misra: (1) On projectively flat Finslerian spaces. Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. e Politec. Torino, to appear. (2) On Finsler spaces with concircular transformations, to appear. (3) On Finsler spaces with concircular transformations II, to appear. Dr. S. N. Pandey: On a f (R) theory of gravity, communicated for publication; (2) The mystery of gravity, communicated for publication. 3.4. Preparation of Lecture Notes and other publication: Professor R.B. Misra also published the following text-books and general articles: (1) Algebraic Systems and Topology, pp. viii + 118 (A4 size), Hardwari Publications (Allahabad), India, 2008 (MAP 52, 72); Laplace Transform, PDE and Fourier Series, pp. v + 100 (A4 size), Hardwari Publications (Allahabad), India, 2008 (MA 235, 236, 336). (Numbers in the brackets refer to the Maths. Courses prescribed in the University.) (3) Mathematics and mathematicians at Prayag (Allahabad) – a survey article. (4) Professor Albert Einstein: A historical view of his life (1879-1955). Annexure 7. (5) Physical Field Theories – a survey article (Annexure 8). 4. Consultancy The Department could not run any consultancy programme so far. But, it may be possible to conduct some more comprehensive training programmes for the Primary and Secondary school teachers to improve their skills in mathematics and computer learning. 5. Externalization of Programmes Some faculty members of the Department have been engaged in giving various courses to the students of DODL. Mr. John Gesa, Mr. Jeffrey Ambelye and Mr. John Lanta taught mathematics courses in their programmes in the year 2008. 6. Staff Development and Welfare Two teachers, Mr. John Lanta, and Mr. Jeffrey Ambelye have been awarded AusAid Scholarships to pursue their postgraduate studies in The Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane (Australia) during the coming academic year(s). They are sponsored by AUSAID – PATTAF Office. Several appointments (detailed in Annexure 4) were made in the past. However, only 3 of the expatriates and one PNG national (Mr. Attawe John Koigiri, who has already served the Department in the past as well but had resigned due to being elected as a Member of Parliament) joined the Department. The Department still expects to make some more appointments in the near future. 7. Finance and Management The Department runs a Printery on commercial basis. By that way it earns some revenue. Details are not available. The Department urgently needs the services of an Administrative Officer who may keep the necessary records. Besides, the University could not recruit additional Secretary. Both the posts have been lying vacant since long. 8. Asset Maintenance The Department maintains a computer lab, one photocopier, 9 computers (for the use of staff), one scanner, three printers: one Laser Printer and two Desk Jet Printers. Maintenance of office equipments is generally done by the service providers from outside. However, minor repairs in computers etc. is also taken care by the ITS Section of the University. 9. Other Activities 9.1. Meetings: Please see Annexures 1– 3 for meetings of various Committees / Boards. 9.2. Research Seminars: A research seminar “On some properties of numbers” was given by Prof. R.B. Misra on 20.08.2008. The full-time faculty members of the Department attended (Annexure 5). Seminars on “Vision for mathematics and computer science education in developing countries” were also given independently by Prof. Dr. R.B. Misra and Assoc. Prof. Dr. S.N. Pandey on 28.08.2008 (Annexure 6). 10. Next Year’s Activities and Continuous Plan 10.1. Revision of syllabus: As indicated in Sub-Para 2.1 above. 10.2. Composition of Examination Committee and implementation of examination procedure: All the full-time faculty will be members of the Examination Committee chaired by the HoD / or its nominee. The lecturers will be asked to submit the Examination Papers to the Head well in advance of the exam. dates. The Head and the Exam. Committee will discuss the suitability of the Question Paper(s). A uniform pattern of setting the question papers will be followed. There shall be some choice to answer the questions and uniform distribution of marks will be recommended. The Examination Committee shall have right to amend the questions, if necessary. Preferably, the answer-scripts will be coded before evaluation. This coding work will be done by the HoD or its nominee and shall be kept confidential. It will be mandatory to submit the marks along with the evaluated answer-scripts to the HoD by every examiner. 10.3. New Programmes of study: The Department plans to open the degree courses in Mathematics for which the courses are yet to be prepared. It may be recalled that currently, the Department offers the service courses in mathematics and runs its own degree and diploma courses in Computer Science only. 10.4. Postgraduate courses: Subject to availability of additional senior faculty members the Department would also like to open the postgraduate classes in mathematics in future. Lae: 15.11.2008 Prof. Dr. R. B. Misra Annexure 1 DEPARTMENTAL MEETINGS A/c Year Meeting No. Date Chaired by Secretary Remarks 2007 1 22.03.2007 Dr. S. Kopamu Mr. J Ambelye ” 2 07.06.2007 Dr. C. Wilkins ” ” 3 19.07.2007 ” ” ” 4 08.08.2007 Mr. John Gesa ” Welcome to Prof. R.B. Misra ” 5 19.09.2007 ” Mr. S. Benny ” 6 27.11.2007 ” Mr. J Ambelye 2008 1 07.02.2008 ” ” ” 2 28.02.2008 ” ” ” 3 10.04.2008 ” ” ” 4 13.06.2008 ” ” ” 5 03.11.2008 Dr. C. Wilkins ” Exam. results discussed Annexure 2 HOD MEETINGS HELD A/c Year Meeting No. Date Chaired by Remarks / Activity 2007 1 27.08.2007 PVC (Acad.) 2008 1 07.02.2008 PVC (Acad.) ” 2 12.02.2008 ” ” 3 18.02.2008 ” Welcome by VC ” 4 20.02.2008 HoD & Coordinator attend the new students ” 5 11.03.2008 Actg. PVC (Acad) ” 6 28.05.2008 PVC (Acad.) ” 7 05.06.2008 PVC (Acad.) ” 8 27.08.2008 PVC (Acad.) ” 9 08.09.2008 PVC (Acad.) Annexure 3 ACADEMIC BOARD MEETINGS A/c Year Meeting No. Date Chaired by Remarks / Activity 2007 283 14.03.2007 Actg. VC / PVC (Admn.) ” 284 ” 285 16.04.2007 PVC (Admn.) ” 286 26.07.2007 VC ” 287 12.09.2007 Actg. VC / PVC (Admn.) ” - 12.10.2007 ? ” 288 05.12.2007 VC 2008 289 09.04.2008 VC ” 290 28.05.2008 VC ” 291 02.07.2008 PVC (Acad.) ” 292 18.09.2008 PVC (Admn.) ” 293 12.11.2008 VC Exam. results approved Annexure 4 EXAM. COMMITTEE MEETINGS ATTENDED A/c Year Meeting No. Date Chaired by Remarks / Activity 2007 1 29.11.2007 Chairman, Exam. Committee Semester II Results discussed 2008 1 20.06.2008 Chairman, Exam. Committee Semester I Results discussed ” 2 ” HoD, Mech. Engg. MA 235 results discussed ” 3 23.06.2008 Chairman, Exam. Committee Semester I Results discussed ” 4 31.10.2008 HoD, Mech. Engg. MA 336 results discussed OTHER MEETINGS ATTENDED A/c Year Meeting No. Date Chaired by Remarks / Activity 2007 1 17.08.2007 Prof. R.B. Misra Meeting with Comp. Sci. students ” 2 18.10.2007 PVC (Acad.) Interview for Comp. Sci. faculty ” 3 23.10.2007 PVC (Acad.) Interview for Maths. faculty ” 4 29.10.2007 Prof. R.B. Misra Meeting with Comp. Sci. IV Yr. students 2008 1 27.02.2008 ” Interview for Maths. faculty (Mr. A. Koigiri) ” 2 11.03.2008 VC Journal of Language & Commun. Studies launched ” 3 12.03.2008 - Meeting with Dr. Tagis, DG, OHE ” 4 18.03.2008 - Meeting for Maths. Diploma classes ” 5 18.04.2008 H. E. The Chancellor Graduation ceremony ” 6 23.04.2008 - VC & Committee’s visit to Dept. planned Annexure 5 NEW APPOINTMENTS MADE Following appointments for our Department were made by the University in the Second Semester of A/c year 2007, but only 3 appointees (marked with an asterisk) joined the Dept. The Dept. badly needs qualified teachers. It becomes unmanageable with very few hands (3 + 1 part-time) in C.S. and 8 (including me) + 4 part-timers in Maths. (i) For Comp. Sci.: 1. Dr. A. Arokiasamy (Cyprus), Sr. Lecturer, up to 30 Nov. 2010; 2. Mrs. Kanna Lakshmi (India), Lecturer II, up to 30 Nov. 2010; 3. Dr. Alok Pandey (USA), Visiting Assoc. Prof., 1 Feb .- 30 Nov.2008; 4. Mrs. Mahima Pandey (USA), Visiting Sr. Lecturer, up to 30 Nov.’08. (ii) For Maths.: 1. Dr. F. M. Meher (India), Visiting Sr. Lecturer, 1 Feb.-30 Nov. 2008*; 2. Dr. C. K. Mishra (India), Sr. Lecturer, up to 30 Nov. 2010; 3. Dr. K. B. Singh (India), Lecturer II, up to 30 Nov. 2010*; 4. Dr. Krishna Kumar (India), Lecturer II, up to 30 Nov. 2010; 5. Dr. Hitesh Kumar (India), Lecturer II, up to 30 Nov. 2010; 6. Dr. S. N.Pandey (India), Visiting Assoc. Prof., up to 30 June 2009*. Lae: 15.11.2008 Prof. Dr. R. B. Misra PAGE 5