Divine Word University and University of Melbourne Co-Develop AI Governance Framework in Madang

In May 2026, a team from the University of Melbourne's Centre for the Study of Higher Education - Professor Raoul Mulder, Dr Tracii Ryan, Dr Mat Hardy and Dr Leah Schwartz - travelled to Divine Word University (DWU) in Madang, Papua New Guinea, to co-deliver a three-day workshop on AI in higher education for DWU's academic and administrative leadership, working directly with Vice President Academic Affairs Professor Iwona Kolodziejczyk and Centre for Learning and Teaching Director Picky Airi.
The visit established three standing working groups - on AI in assessment design, AI policy and governance, and AI literacy - tasked with developing DWU's institutional AI governance and policy frameworks across 2026. DWU academic and administrative staff who completed the workshop received certificates of participation, and DWU's leadership has stated the intention for the pilot to serve as a model other Papua New Guinean universities could adopt.
As of mid-2026 the initiative remains in its policy-development phase: no student learning-outcome data has yet been published, and the results described to date are institutional (workshops delivered, working groups formed, staff certified) rather than measured impacts on teaching or learning.

Read the full analysis: https://about.unimelb.edu.au/education-melbourne/our-people-in-action/strengthening-ai-capability-in-higher-education-across-papua-new-guinea