Online poll | Majority reject Zonqor university ‘compromise’

55.85% of 1,930 respondents who took part in an online poll on Maltatoday.com.mt disagree with the partial siting of the private ‘American University of Malta’ campus at Zonqor Point, arguing that that the government should protect Malta’s limited untouched land.

774 respondents (40.1%) believe that the government has made a fair decision after listening to the public, while the remaining 78 (4.04%) said that it made no difference to them.

Originally set to take over 90,000 square metres of land outside development zones at Zonqor, the new plans that were announced by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat earlier this month, will see the campus split in two – Dock 1 in Cospicua and Zonqor Point. The Zonqor campus- which will include three faculties, student dormitories and sports facilities - will be spread over 31,000 square metres, 18,000 of which will be on ODZ land.

The Prime Minister’s decision came after a 3,000-strong protest led by the newly-formed Front Harsien ODZ thronged Valletta’s Republic Street to protest the government’s original plans to hand over the land to a Jordanian construction company, Sadeen, to create the fledgling AUM, that has not yet been licensed by the higher-education regulator.

While Muscat claimed that the final decision was a “compromise in favour of common sense”, Front Harsien ODZ, environmental organisations, the Nationalist Party and Alternattiva Demokratika have all claimed that no ODZ land should be used for the project.