New rector says University of Malta needs to change funding model

Outgoing rector Juanito Camilleri: “Malta sorely needs independent free-thinkers who provide thought-leadership based on fact not emotion, on reason not fanaticism”

Prof. Alfred Vella (left), with Prof. David Attard and outgoing rector Prof. Juanito Camilleri. Photo: Austin Tufigno
Prof. Alfred Vella (left), with Prof. David Attard and outgoing rector Prof. Juanito Camilleri. Photo: Austin Tufigno
Prof. Alfred Vella and Prof. Juanito Camilleri embrace each other during the swearing-in ceremony for the 81st rector of the University of Malta. Photo: Austin Tufigno
Prof. Alfred Vella and Prof. Juanito Camilleri embrace each other during the swearing-in ceremony for the 81st rector of the University of Malta. Photo: Austin Tufigno

The new rector of the University of Malta has announced in his opening speech that he intends making a case for the university to adopt a funding model similar to private universities, where students – ostensibly foreign as well as Maltese – could also be charged for education.

Prof. Alfred J. Vella, installed as the 81st rector of Malta’s sole national university, said he wanted to see the State “in my strong view, still support through scholarships, all those students who have the entry qualifications which University of Malta today requires: other students would be allowed to access our programmes but against charge.”

Prof. Vella said this required a change of mindset for the university itself, “away from an admitting university towards a recruiting one.”

He claimed this would allow the UOM to compete for students from the near shore, especially Europe and the Middle East.

“The income so generated could be added to that dedicated to funding the research effort. One cannot expect successful research to happen on the cheap: you require dedicated researchers, up to date library and laboratory facilities and some, well more than some, luck. Doing research is not quite like opening and running a business: you could spend a lot of effort trying to prove an hypothesis only to find it doesn’t work as you had imagined… although rarely are research results useless once proper methodology is employed and brain power of the right calibre applied to any finding as may be generated.” 

He said he did not see much competition in the Mediterranean for Malta. “No wonder, the notion of promoting Malta as a higher education hub was interesting and irresistible for government but only because the providers are using English as their medium of instruction.”

Research at the University of Malta is reliant on EU funds, but during 2011-2015 about 2400 entries deriving from UM researchers appeared in world literature – five times larger than that produced during 2001-2005.

“With more resources, we can and shall do even better in this area of scholarship and this will serve to push the University further up in the global rankings.”

The University of Malta is currently ranked the 1243rd university in the world with the top 5.2% of world universities. “Our University is well ahead of 2,000 from among [US] institutions which rank beyond the 5000th place in global ranking. In the UK, there are a total of 291 universities and HEIs and, of these, 203 are ranked well below UM. When one considers the resources available to our staff to perform research work, we aren’t doing so badly,” Prof. Vella said.

Outgoing rector Juanito Camilleri delivered a speech which, while light-hearted in nature, pressed on the most pertinent issues the university is set to face.

Camilleri spoke at length on the future of the university and what social goals it should aim to achieve. “For the university to achieve greater heights and for it to continue to serve as a pillar of this society and as a bedrock of this economy, it is crucial that it is reconstituted as a public equivalent body with full administrative as well as academic autonomy, held accountable through appropriate and self-checking governance structures, but not held on a leash by mindless bureaucracy and rigid administrative practice.”

Camilleri said he believed the university was a driving force for Malta’s future, but that it had to look at what it should become in order to empower and transform Malta's mindset. “I argue that Malta sorely needs independent free-thinkers, academics, who develop the stature to profess credibly, provide the thought-leadership which can add value, and hence uplift, based on fact not emotion, on reason not fanaticism, the discourse formulating future economic, social, and public policy.”

Prof. Alfred J. Vella was sworn in along with with five new pro-rectors: Prof. Joseph Cacciottolo, Dr Carmen Sammut, Prof. Tanya Sammut-Bonnici, Prof. Saviour Zammit and Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino.