University of Malta rectorship: Baldacchino ponders top post

With the selection process of the new University of Malta (UoM) rector set to kick off next month, academics and students alike are engaged in an engrossing debate on who should lead the institution and where it should be headed. 

A few names have been bandied about, including sociologist Godfrey Baldacchino, head of the international relations department Carmen Sammut and the relatively unknown Tanya Sammut-Bonnici who currently heads the Marketing Department of the Faculty of Economics.

While Sammut told MaltaToday that she would “wish to wait and see before commenting” about the outgoing rector’s legacy and the UoM’s future, Baldacchino has taken to Facebook to sound out colleagues, students and friends over a potential bid to become rector. 

Writing on a Facebook page dedicated to discuss the new rector, Baldacchino asked “should I or shouldn’t I? It’s a difficult decision, and for a variety of reasons: the University of Malta is a mammoth institution; the position requires a slate of skills hard to find fleshed out in one person; and Rector Juanito Camilleri’s shoes are very big to fill – kudos to him.”

Baldacchino said that one of the tasks of the new rector would be – in consultation with all staff and their representative bodies – to massage the transition to an appropriate University of Malta Act, which will lift the UoM out of the Education Act while, at the same time, “creating an unparalleled opportunity to revisit the core governance structure of the University itself.”

He added that “with such a complex corporate organisation now accompanying the classic ‘community of scholars’, we perhaps should no longer think in terms of a super-human type Rector for our university: visionary, strategist, lobbyist, scholar, chief executive, rolled neatly into one.”

He went on to ask whether the UoM should move to a model “where a Rector becomes more of a University President, focusing on strategy, while confiding most of the executive management role to another official. Should we have a Deputy Rector, a Chief Executive Officer, a Provost, a Chief Operating Officer, or a more powerful Secretary and/or Registrar? Each of these options has real exemplars in the real world.”

Baldacchino also floated the idea of having as many as three pro-rectors assisting the rector – each taking charge of research, campus life, and community outreach with other pots-secondary colleges “and the ‘invisible 35%’ who never make it to tertiary education”.

“There are men and women held in high regard by their peers and co-workers, willing and able to dedicate time, energy and effort to pushing forward the new rector’s vision agenda. To do this job and do it well, they may need to sacrifice or push aside, even if temporarily, their academic career – hence my personal preference for full professors who have ‘been there, done that’ and are itching for new and different challenges, under the Rector’s leadership.”

Camilleri’s legacy 

Outgoing rector Juanito Camilleri, who will see his 10-year tenure come to an end in June, is viewed by some of his peers as a visionary, especially in the ICT sector. Dean of the Faculty of Art Dominic Fenech said Camilleri “single-mindedly” helped the UoM achieve a major leap in quality and resources.

“He built a strong sense of trust and collegiality with the academic body… Camilleri quickly grasped that a university rector is not a company CEO, because the academic hierarchy is a democratic one.”

Camilleri, who came from an ICT background whilst running GO plc, offered strong leadership and initiative “coupled with an equally strong sense of partnership with the people he worked with,” Fenech said. “He understood that in the face of creeping commodification of education taking place throughout the world the UoM needed to perform a major leap in quality and resources, and strove towards this goal single-mindedly.”

His failure was securing a third term, Fenech said. “Some would argue that 10 years are enough, but there have been so many initiatives started that one can only hope that whoever becomes the new rector will sustain and push them forward; have a sense of ownership of them.”

Not only did ICT get a new faculty under Camilleri, but three others came into being that previously existed only as institutes or centres of learning. Fenech says other established faculties registered considerable growth and development in every sense.” 

Looking ahead, Fenech a new rector will have to show undivided loyalty towards the “national heirloom” the university is. “It could have higher ranking internationally, yes – though we’re ranked much better than many think – but it will only get it if it continues the ongoing project of upgrading itself in the quality and dedication of its staff, its research output (driven by funding), its infrastructure, and its self-projection.” 

No control freaks, please

In a somewhat more critical approach, Peter Mayo, who heads the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education, instead said there should be no room for “control freaks” in the new administrative set-up.

“Let heads do what they are meant to do, direct teaching and research but also be prime exemplars of both. Unfortunately bureaucracy has increased to the point of making one wonder whether it is worth the hassle of leading a department, let alone a faculty. Woe betides us if we get a rector bent on continuously devising new intricate structures of administrative control.”

Mayo also called for a moderate teaching load that allows space for research, ruing the numerous audit exercises that are unconnected to research but “about things as they appear on paper and not as they actually are with all their complexity.”

And he also warns that the new Rector will have her or his work cut trying to eradicate cronyism. “It seems easier to gain a professorship through sitting on committees or taking on department headships or other administrative roles than through engaging in published research.”

Mayo put forward a number of proposals to encourage academic staff to advance their careers.

“The University has a responsibility towards different communities in its effort to contribute to the development of a democratic public sphere. After all, it is a public entity financed primarily through public taxes. One should therefore make more democratic use of such a public resource. This effort needs to be regarded as useful university work which, together with other aspects of academic engagement, needs to be considered for the purposes of academic promotions.”

Kristian Zarb Adami, from the faculty of science, praised Camilleri’s negotiation of the collective agreement and the higher investment in world-class research facilities that are now attracting first-class academics from all over the world. He credits Camilleri’s strong investment in the science, engineering and ICT faculties as having produced top-class graduates “who do not struggle to find jobs. This has opened the country’s economy to new sectors such as online gaming, software engineering and high-tech manufacturing.”

But even he complains about an “explosion” of administrative duties that hamper the quality of research and teaching under Camilleri’s rectorship. “The inevitable increase of administration, accountability and political interference puts the rector in a difficult position and there is a significant threat to the autonomy of the university which has only increased rather than been curbed.”

The solution? Zarb Adami proposes an overhaul in the selection process of the new rector, which he said “is as important as the selection itself.” 

“I would like to see an open, transparent process, with candidates being head hunted both locally and internationally. I would like to see a small, but strong selection committee made up of both local and internationally renowned academics with minimal influence from government.” 

How is the rector chosen?

Candidates who will either be nominated or put their name forward will be invited to present themselves and their credentials to the 32 members of the university council, who among others include four members of the UoM Senate, six academic and non-academic staff representatives, three student council members, 15 members appointed by the Prime Minister to “represent the general interest of the country” and another representative appointed by the education minister. 

The council, presided by lawyer Michael Sciriha, is expected to take a final vote on 18 March.