Few public opinion polls are undertaken in PNG, perhaps because of the expense. Students at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) are not representative of the population but are the nation’s future elite and leadership.
We carried out a public opinion poll at the UPNG’s School of Business and Public Policy in April 2024. A total of 373 students participated in our survey. The survey examined three key areas: student demographics, attachment to national identity and views on PNG’s future.
The demographic profile of the surveyed students reveals a predominantly male population, with 61% identifying as male and 39% as female, which is almost the same split as a similar survey carried out 12 years ago at UPNG. Most of the students are between the ages of 18 and 24 years, as we would expect.
The students hailed from all 22 of PNG’s provinces, with some smaller provinces like Milne Bay and Jiwaka represented as well as much larger provinces like Morobe and East New Britain (Figure 1). 69% of students identified only one province of origin, 17% two provinces and 12% three provinces.
Nearly 77% of our surveyed students identified as coming from a two-parent home, while 15% of them reported that they were raised by a single parent.
About 80% of the students reported having a guardian who had at least completed high school. Compare this to the 2016-2018 PNG Demographic and Health Survey, which found that only 28% of individuals in PNG had completed high school. Likewise, 56% of students were raised in an urban area (versus 13% for the entire population) and 67% said their parents had wage-based employment (versus 15% for the entire population).
In summary, UPNG students have a much higher socio-economic status than the average citizen, and this may mean they have different views.
The second part of our survey looked at issues of identity to understand students’ allegiances to their families, cultural groups and nation, an important topic of research.
When we asked students what group they were most loyal to, the typical student put family first, then village, wantok or province second, and nation third. However, when we asked which entity they felt close or very close to, more said the nation (90%) then either home village (80%) or home province (78%).
Comparing the 2024 results to the 2012 survey of UPNG students, feelings of attachments to smaller groups such as home villages and provinces have declined, while feelings of attachment to PNG as a nation have, if anything, increased (Figure 2).
This idea that the nation is becoming more important to students is supported by another comparison to the 2012 survey. The portion of students that said it is better for local groups in PNG to blend into one society instead of maintaining their distinct languages, customs and traditions increased from 29% in 2012 to 42% in 2024.
On the regional front, when asked about how close they feel to PNG’s close neighbours, Australia and China, students felt closer to Australia than to China with 43% of them feeling no closeness at all to China. This is consistent with earlier research.
We also asked students what it means to be Papua New Guinean. More students believed that being a Christian (84%) was very important to making you truly Papua New Guinean compared to those who selected other significant factors of national identity such as respecting your traditions and customs (76%), having PNG citizenship (79%) or being born in PNG (74%). Clearly PNG’s national identity is closely tied to the country’s largest religion. When asked about national pride, students overwhelmingly cited PNG’s natural beauty and its diverse cultures, languages and traditions.
The final part of the survey investigated the students’ views on PNG’s direction of travel. Students were in fact overwhelmingly pessimistic. A staggering 80.2% said that the country was heading in the wrong direction; 15.2% said they didn’t know or didn’t want to answer the question; and only 4.6% said it was going in the right direction.
Perhaps this pessimism is not surprising given the rioting in Port Moresby in January. Nevertheless, the results certainly convey a very negative national mood. This is a standard public opinion question, so international comparisons are possible. If we take only those responses that answered the question, the degree of pessimism in our survey exceeds that observed in the 30 other countries for which data have been compiled (Figure 3).
While these other surveys are of the entire population rather than of only university students, the comparison is alarming. The primary reasons students gave for their negativity were poor economic management (39%), rampant corruption (23%) and inadequate leadership (16%). Surprisingly, issues related to law and order, while significant, seemed to rank lower.
The strong and increasingly unified sense of national identity is certainly a positive to emerge from this survey. The almost unanimous view that things are heading in the wrong direction should serve as a wake-up call for Papua New Guinea’s politicians.
More graphs can be in seen in the authors’ 2024 PNG Update survey presentation.
Hi Kelly and Stephen this is very useful. Thank you so much for conducting such research. The views expressed by the students reflect broader public perceptions!
I concur with the concluding sentiments. It is interesting to see the increased sense of unity amongst the younger generations, who have rightly identified the primary root cause of law and order: poor management of resources and funds, corruption, and a need for good leadership and governance.
Thanks to both, Kelly and Stephen.
But something that always occurred to me, when I was teaching “Policy Monitoring and Evaluation” to UPNG students, between 2021 and 2023. Where are they now?
What jobs did they get after graduation – if any?
Hi Peter,
Most postgraduate students at SBPP are employed in the public sector and often return to their departments, particularly if their studies are employer-funded.
For UPNG undergraduates, comprehensive job data isn’t available. However, a 2018 survey of UPNG economics graduates showed that 50% work in the private sector and about 35% in the public sector. From my experience, our economics graduates typically find roles in commercial banks, private advisory firms, and government departments like Treasury and the Central bank.
Here’s a link to the student employment survey from 2018:
https://devpolicy.org/upng-student-employment-outcomes-survey-results-20180725/
Many thanks for picking up, Kelly.
I suspect that the study of “economics” means the eventual graduate is more marketable, public or private. The universities’ paradigm of “economics” favours the private sector over the public, unless it’s Keynesian economics.
So I was more thinking of graduates not in economics. For example, my course went to the heart of what good and effective government means and can be tested. I would have hoped that UPNG would have been very interested in what happens to the lives of its general graduates.