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A number of letters have been written lately regarding the fairness of the admissions process at University as well as the stipend issue.
There seem to be a widespread misconception amongst the Maltese public regarding EU students at University. Let us make one thing very clear. EU students DO NOT pay University fees and they DO NOT receive the stipend.
However there are EU students with dual nationality living in Malta, i.e. with a Maltese and another country’s passport. Some of these students would have attended any of the Maltese state, private or Church schools where they have had the right of receiving the Sixth Form stipend. One group of students in this category, namely pupils of Verdala International School do not have the right to do so. When contacting the ‘Maintenance Grant Board’ the stock reply is that Verdala is not on the list. On this list you have schools such as the normal Sixth Form colleges as well as ‘The School of Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy’, ‘The Pre School’ and ‘Mother Theresa College’!
Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to what the two latter ones are.
Verdala International School is the only school on the Maltese Islands that offer the highly internationally acclaimed International Baccalaureate program, which incidentally the Matsec system is based upon. Universities abroad fight to get the IB students because of the quality and broad base this programme gives the pupils.
So students at Verdala are obviously discriminated against. Since they are of mixed nationality, Maltese is usually not the main language at home. They do not study Maltese at Verdala, they study an International Curriculum with other languages.
When it comes to university admission they are not admitted based on them not having Maltese O-level. Other EU students from Verdala and the outside are admitted. The dual nationality student is not allowed to apply using another EU passport. The Maltese passport takes precedence. So no matter how you look at this issue there is only one way out and that is to send you child to University abroad, which obviously costs a lot of money and is not available to all because of personal economic restrictions. Not only is the student discriminated against in this country where ‘investing in today’s youngsters is a guarantee for the country’s future’, the parents are as well. The parents of this dual nationality student would have chosen Malta as their base and subsequently they would pay taxes and social security contributions, which is why a country can offer benefits such as stipends and free education amongst many things.
Isn’t it about time that we start looking after our own and work towards this country’s future?
Kim Berglund Ellul
St Julians
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