PNGUoT & CHARLESTON SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY ENTERS PARTNERSHIP
By Phyllia Pisep
Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT) has signed a letter of intent with Charleston Southern University based in South Carolina, to foster collaboration between the two esteemed institutions.
This signed partnership aims to develop joint programs, exchange initiatives, and collaborative research projects, and allow students to gain invaluable international experience and build lasting connections.
PNGUoT’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Ora Renagi said, “We have a new office of international partnerships specifically to foster the many relationships we have around the world, and we welcome this new partnership. PNGUoT’s objective is to ensure that all of our students and faculty and staff are also looking outwards, life is not only Papua New Guinea, we have to make sure that young people are thinking on a global level.”
Professor Renagi also stated, “We are promoting renewable energy and our engineers provide training to address climate change, so we would like to collaborate on these critical areas with partners like Charleston Southern who have the same goals. Through this partnership we can have some collaboration, student exchange, and other partnerships. We want to be a world-class university and we want to build our capacity. Our innovative objectives are to up build our capacity in of academic excellence, research excellence, financial sustainability, and Charleston Southern University can work with us to achieve these goals.”
“While at the same time we Papua New Guineans have a lot to teach our peers in America and around the world. I would like Americans to learn about the life and culture of the rural areas like the village where I am from which gave me the values that make me who I am,” said Professor Renagi.
Chair-elect of Sister Cities International and Chief of Strategy and Innovation for the City of Fort Worth, Texas, Carlo Capua was present to facilitate the signing. He remarked, “The energy that youth bring to these partnerships is unparalleled. When young people are exposed to other cultures at an early age, it opens their minds and leaves an indelible mark the way that I was changed forever when I came to PNG 25 years ago. My visit shaped me as a person and this partnership will help students at PNGUoT and Charleston Southern to grow into global citizens who are more empathetic, innovative, and prepared to tackle the challenges of tomorrow.”
Sister Cities International is a non-profit organization launched in 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to foster global friendships and cultural understanding through city-to-city partnerships. Through these partnerships, dozens or hundreds of organisations and institutions voluntarily partner with similar organizations in their sister city. The Sister Cities committee in each city facilitates the international communication and exchange. Sister Cities International now has more than 545 U.S. cities with relationships in 2,100 communities across 145 countries, and this historic new connection with Papua New Guinea is now one of them.
Dr. Suely Saro, a city council member from Long Beach, California, officiated the event as part of the Sister Cities International delegation to Papua New Guinea. Dr. Saro emphasized on the transformative potential of this partnership, noting, that The city of Long Beach currently have nine city-to-city partnerships with cities around the globe, and I have seen firsthand how these connections change the lives of everyday people and deepen our understanding of one another.
Partnerships between universities speaks more of just academia aspects of connections; it provides students and schools under the universities to do learning exchanges- catering for mutual respect from a sense of global citizenship in the coming years.
Therefore, research is a huge part of this, not just in advancing knowledge – it supports economic development.