In August 2019 a new significant milestone was achieved in online admission to higher education in Papua New Guinea. The National Online Application System (NOAS) that is running in PNG for the second year features full integration with the STAT-P registration system. STAT-P is the exam required by two PNG Universities as an additional requirement for their candidates. It is prepared and run by ACER – the Australian Council for Educational Research. The organisation was established in 1930 and currently has more than 430 staff working in offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Dubai, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, London, Melbourne, New Delhi, Perth and Sydney. Around 5000 PNG students take STAT-P every year, most of them are graduates from secondary schools. In the past DHERST and the universities found it difficult to match the STAT-P exam takers with the school leavers data, because of the lack of a universally recognised id number in the country. This year PCG Academia proposed the integration of NOAS with the STAT-P registration module based on the shared use of School Leaver Numbers. The integration was agreed in May and implemented within June-July. The application was launched on August 21st. Within first five weeks (with 4 more weeks to go) 5000 students used the integration.

Alistair Macleod – ACER Manager for Tertiary and Vocational Assessment Services comment on ACER and PCG Academia teams achievement: “My congratulations to everyone involved in this integration process – great work all round.“