Governance Program
Program Leader
Dr Thomas Webster is a Professorial Research Fellow and Project Manager of Bougainville Research in the Governance Program at PNG NRI.
He has a Doctor of Education degree from Bristol University, a Master’s in Education from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Education from UPNG.
Dr Webster started his career working as a primary school teacher, and later an education planning specialist with the PNG Department of Education, before joining the Faculty of Education at the University of Papua New Guinea to teach Education Planning and Policy Studies. Following his Doctoral studies, he worked as Provincial Administrator in Western Highlands Province for three and a half years (1998-2001).
He moved back to the University of PNG as Head of the Open College, before becoming the Director of the National Research Institute in 2004. Dr Webster held this position for eleven years, before retiring in May 2015. He came out of retirement in April 2016 to take up his present position. Dr Webster has broad research interests in areas including land reform, economic competition policy, and education reform.