Academic Programs

This unit introduces students to three major theories of community development: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. These theories provide a framework for understanding development at the community level. Students will conduct practical observations within a selected community to identify its different institutions and their functions, understand the various groups and their power relations, and explain how different groups perceive events, places, and people.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a representative democracy that relies on electoral processes to select representatives from different electorates. Various administrative institutions work together to facilitate elections in accordance with electoral laws and policies. This unit provides an overview of electorates and electoral processes. Students will examine relevant laws and policies, identify the roles of different administrative institutions, distinguish electoral boundaries, analyse electoral processes, explore different types of elections, and examine the roles of political parties. The unit also covers campaign strategies, election dispute cases, changes in the voting system, gender issues, and election-related violence.

This unit explores a range of influential texts that offer fresh perspectives on cultural diversity in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and around the world. It examines how different peoples assign different meanings to events, objects, individuals, and emotions, and how these differences can lead to conflict, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. The unit also explores fieldwork, participant observation, and critical approaches to anthropological research, including how anthropologists’ backgrounds and personal experiences influence their findings.

International organisations play a significant role in the international system. They include multinational corporations, non-governmental organisations, and intergovernmental organisations, which differ in their purposes, structures, and functions. This unit aims to help students understand the roles and responsibilities of international organisations in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Liberalism and its related theories in international relations provide the theoretical framework for examining the formation, roles, and responsibilities of these organisations.

This unit introduces the basic elements of Human Resource Management (HRM) as a method of organizing the workplace. Students will critically assess the relationship between strategy and core HRM approaches to the quality of working life. They will examine HR strategies within organizational, business, demographic, economic, legislative, and industrial contexts. Throughout the unit, the focus is on maximizing the synergies between employees and employers while ensuring that organizational goals are achieved.

This unit prepares students to undertake a small-scale social science research project. The theoretical component introduces the philosophies and approaches underpinning qualitative and quantitative research and familiarises students with the key elements of a research project, leading to the development of a research proposal. The practical component develops students’ skills in defining research problems, critically reading and writing literature reviews, developing data collection instruments, and obtaining ethical clearance.

Foreign policy analysis is a subfield of international relations that focuses on the processes involved in foreign policy decision-making. This unit aims to develop students’ analytical skills by applying relevant theoretical tools to selected cases of foreign policy decision-making. In particular, the unit introduces levels of analysis as a systematic framework for understanding decision-making processes and the factors that influence foreign policy decision-makers.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has undergone significant administrative reforms that have changed the functions and priorities of the public service. This unit provides an overview of these reforms, with a particular focus on district development. It examines the role of District Development Authorities in managing decentralised administration and overseeing District Services Improvement Program (DSIP) funds. Students will explore how these funds are allocated and utilised at the district level in accordance with district and ward development plans.

This course aims to develop students’ ability to critically analyse film as a medium of communication for development. Through viewing fiction films and documentaries, students will analyse and discuss style, language, themes, plot, characters, visuals, and soundtracks in relation to the context, setting, and messages communicated by each film.

The first part of the course introduces film analysis and theory through exercises based on fiction films or selected scenes. Students will become familiar with film components, visuals, soundtracks, camera shots and movements, editing techniques, and the terminology used in film analysis. The second part focuses on documentaries, particularly those exploring social and development issues in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Students will view and critically reflect on selected documentaries. In the final module, students will produce a documentary addressing a development issue.

Religion has played a significant role in the diverse cultures of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Traditional interpretations of daily life and contemporary events have been shaped by language, beliefs, and rituals commonly understood as religious practices. This unit explores definitions of religion in traditional village communities and compares them with concepts of world religions, including those recognised in the Constitution and reflected in village religious experiences. Students will examine the relationship between traditional religious beliefs and the influence of Christianity in contemporary PNG, while also considering Islam and other world religions. The unit investigates key aspects of village culture, including initiation practices, magic, and beliefs about spirits, and explores the emergence of new religious movements during periods of cultural contact. It also considers sensitive issues such as sanguma beliefs and approaches to health and healing within their cultural and religious contexts.

Foreign policy refers to the plans and strategies that guide a state’s interactions with other states and non-state actors within the anarchic international system. It generally seeks to protect and advance the national interests of the state. This unit introduces students to the concept of foreign policy, focusing on the approaches and decisions adopted by Papua New Guinea (PNG) since independence. Students will examine the advantages and disadvantages of different foreign policy approaches and analyse their significance in shaping PNG’s international relations and contributing to national development.

This unit introduces students to the fundamental principles of community-based project management at the district level. Students will explore the five key stages of a project: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure. They will examine how these stages are applied in practice by observing an ongoing community-based project led by a District Development Authority or a non-governmental organisation. Drawing on their observations, students will develop a basic community-based project proposal for implementation in their own district or Madang District, with potential funding from a District Development Authority or other donors.