University academics call out employers’ push to ‘wean students off soft subjects’

Academics say MEA pushes antiquated proposal to take students away from humanities and into sciences • Chamber of Commerce reacts: We are keen promoters of humanities and STEM

MEA director Joseph Farrugia
MEA director Joseph Farrugia

University of Malta pro rector Prof. Carmen Sammut has called out Malta’s employers group, the MEA, over an election request to push students into science and out of so-called ‘soft options’ – a reference to the humanities and arts.

The MEA want post-secondary and tertiary education students to be encouraged to take up science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and to be “weaned off” the ‘soft options’ to address the lack of female graduates in science and tech.

“Hope politicians will have the wisdom not to follow and I just hope everyone understands why the ‘weaning away’ from so called ‘soft subjects’ will be damaging to our well-being, culture, intellectual development and democracy,” Prof. Sammut said on Facebook.

Her post was met with a chorus of disapproval for the MEA’s position from academic staff and deans of the University of Malta.

Anthropologist Daniela DeBono said the proposal appeared not only to advocate for more STEM in educatin, but a replacement of the humanities and social sciences. “How would STEM benefit humanity if people do not do history, politics, geography, anthropology?”

Jean Paul de Lucca, the founder of the University of Malta’s Centre for the Liberal Arts and Sciences and former head of its Department of Philosophy, said the MEA’s proposal was akin to “totalitarian capitalism”.

“What this proposal is really pushing for is a soulless, uncouth, passive, uncritical and sterile citizenry.

“For a vision that purports to be based on ‘foresight’, it is utterly myopic and short-sighted. Education is not a factory of potential employees who suit the tastes of the MEA. Much more is at stake – and that makes this proposal a downright dangerous one. It must be called out.”

The prize-winning author Aleks Farrugia called the MEA proposal “dangerous”.

“Short-sighted and outright ignorant, even from a business point of view. Shows how close-minded and provincial the MEA are, totally unaware of what’s happening in the world out there, especially in business.”

Kurt Borg, a lecturer in education studies at the Faculty of Education, said it was no wonder critical thinking suffered so much in Malta’s cultural and political climate.

“It’s time that employers’ associations and commerce chambers stop dictating educational policies – or at least to be called out for what they are – ideologically-driven entities with dangerous views on education. Not only is the ‘hard-soft subjects’ distinction passé, but also clearly shows no awareness and appreciation of the value of the humanities.”

Chamber of Commerce takes note of reaction

In a reaction, the Chamber of Commerce said that while it was independent of the MEA and not privy to its definition of so-called ‘soft options’, the Chamber was “absolutely not of the opinion that humanities constitute ‘soft options’ and finds the converse labelling of STEM subjects as ‘hard options’ to be a major factor in discouraging students from pursuing STEM careers.”

“The Malta Chamber is a keen promoter of both the humanities and STEM subjects, and is manifestly against siloed approaches to education,” a spokesperson for the Chamber told MaltaToday.

The Malta Chamber said it draws on the expertise of many graduates in humanities, both within its staff complement as well as within its thematic committees, that include not only business leaders but also a number of academics, even from the humanities.

“The Malta Chamber finds it rather surprising that academics in humanities presume that the business community could possibly consider the humanities to be less important than STEM subjects when businesses are often run by graduates in management, law, economics, psychology and policy, all of which are humanities,” the spokesperson said.

The Chamber also said it was incorrect to misrepresent the views of the Chamber on education as “dangerous”.

“It is worrying to note that some educators have uninformed biases and  warped ideas about entities who are actively engaged in trying to contribute something meaningful to the rescue of the country from the abysses of a failed education system – it becomes even more evident that entities such as the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry need to engage even more in a national debate on the quality of our education.”