The University of Malta has come under fire for its “gross and absurd misuse of space” in the medical school in a report by Education Ombudsman Vincent De Gaetano, with the university refusing to implement his recommendations.
The report emerged from an investigation into a complaint filed by an associate professor who claimed that she was being denied office space at the medical school, located within Mater Dei Hospital.
Although the ombudsman turned down the associate professor’s complaint, finding the claim of discrimination to be unfounded, he flagged other instances of “manifest maladministration” in the way the school’s “shrinking” office space was being managed.
The dean of the faculty of dental surgery, Nikolai Attard, is effectively using two offices, the ombudsman points out in one instance, having taken over a room designated for dental surgery secretaries as his own, despite already having another office allocated to him.
Several other rooms across the school are “underutilised or inappropriately designated”, the ombudsman said, noting that, while four rooms were designated to be used as changing rooms for students to put on their scrubs, only one was used for that purpose.
Situation ‘reminiscent of feudal law and fiefdoms’
The ombudsman slammed the “unwritten understanding that gives deans the clout to hold on to premises even to the detriment of the common good,” describing the situation in the medical school as “reminiscent of feudal law and fiefdoms”.
The ombudsman’s recommendations for the university to “eliminate the irrational use of space at the Medical School” appear to have been ignored.
The investigation’s correspondence reveals that rector Alfred Vella told the ombudsman that Attard’s explanations for the room allocation “do not appear to be irrational or unreasonable”, an assessment that the ombudsman did not share.
In more recent correspondence at the end of June, the rector insisted that after “having consulted with the relevant persons”, he remains “of the view that the current use of space at Mater Dei Hospital is appropriate”.
This prompted Ombudsman Joseph Zammit McKeon and the education ombudsman to flag the matter to Prime Minister Robert Abela and Speaker Anġlu Farrugia.
The “University has clearly indicated that it does not intend to do anything to comply with the Commissioner’s recommendation,” they said in their communication with the prime minister.