College plans to get stricter on students who don't study

The Junior College in Msida is planning to clamp down on students who do not take their studies seriously, by withholding their maintenance grant at the end of the month.

College principal Godfrey Muscat said the current policy was to take away the stipend of those students who regularly fail to attend classes.

But some students only sign up to lectures in order to receive their monthly cheque, and then make "zero progress", he said.

This abuse will no longer be possible come October. The law already allows the college to take this measure, and it will be merely a question of putting it into practice.

"From next year, students will not only be obliged to attend lectures, but they will have to show progress as well," said Mr Muscat, who was speaking in the second part of an interview (the first was carried last week).

In a related measure, the college will be employing more beadles to patrol the school and keep a watchful eye for acts of vandalism by students, which tend to happen mostly at the end of the month, after students find out their grant has been docked.

Not that a large number of the college students are of the disruptive type - 75 per cent go on to university, well above the national 60 per cent average for sixth forms.

To further beef up security, Mr Muscat is also contemplating the introduction of identification tags to be worn by students entering the college, in order to restrict entry to non-students.

"It is very difficult to control who comes into the college, with a couple of thousand students entering and leaving every day. At the moment, students may be asked to show an identification card, but this has not proved sufficient. I would like to see all students wearing a visible ID tag so it will be easier for the security man at the gate to refuse entry to unauthorised persons."

One area over which the school authorities have little control is what takes place just beyond the college gates. This has been a constant source of frustration and concern for Mr Muscat: the several bars located on the roads around the college periphery serve alcohol during the day and are often frequented by customers who, he feels, could have a negative influence on students.

"The National Parents Association had proposed that we turn the area into an alcohol free zone, but this never materialised. We cannot shut the students inside college of course, as they must have the liberty to come and go."

A possible solution, he said, would be to increase and enhance the leisure facilities available to students, luring them to stay within college grounds instead of going in search of possibly dubious entertainment on the outside.

In fact, the college has quite a few projects in the pipeline. Mr Muscat is planning to open a health and fitness centre in October, construct a floodlit, five-a-side football pitch, as well as refurbish the auditorium.

And a large, unused area in the college basement, formerly the site of Urban Jungle, is "crying out for development".

The perennial problem, however, is funding, a sore point for Mr Muscat.

"Last year we needed Lm2.5 million, and the government allocated Lm1.9 million, Lm200,000 short of the amount we need to pay for salaries alone. The university had to dig deep into its pockets to allow us to merely survive.

"Every year we delay the capital outlay we need to make in order not just to improve our facilities but to deal with the basic infrastructure and improve the health and safety aspects of the building. Instead, we rely on crisis management, only tackling the problems when they arise, such as when a water pipe bursts or the electricity fails.

"We have done a lot since we opened in 1995, and that's a feather in the university's cap. But we now need to have a good look at the building, which was erected 35 years ago to house MCAST, and meet the essential requirements."

Failing an adequate budgetary provision, the college is planning to create its own reserve fund in order to pay for the health and fitness centre, football pitch and so on.

One way to do this is by renting out college facilities to outside organisations after school hours or in the holidays.

The college already does this to some extent, but Mr Muscat has bigger plans: he would like to organise ad hoc courses commissioned by public and private enterprises and taught by college staff. The courses could range from marketing and economics to philosophy and languages.

"We have highly qualified staff, 20 of whom have PhDs (the figure will double in five years' time) and others who sit on government boards and corporations. A lot of courses are being offered by foreign and local institutions, and I am certain we would be second to none in organising similar courses to exploit this fertile ground.

"We are trying to identify the courses that we could offer, such as for lab technician or computer procter, which are in high demand. We have the facilities to provide these courses, and they would provide the college with extra income. We could even offer consultancy services.

"It would also be a way of being of service to the country.

"Of course, the idea would have to win the approval of the college board and the university senate when it comes to certification."

Perhaps the biggest problem facing the college today is lack of space. Student numbers are constantly on the rise, fuelled by the college's good academic reputation. In 1995 it started out with 1,300 students. It now caters for 2,600, with the figure expected to rise to 3,000 by 2005.

"The recent setting up of the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology did not ease the pressure on us, as we had hoped," said Mr Muscat.

"We are now bursting at the seams and desperately need more space. There are some days when not one spare lecture room is available.

"We are proposing to build two more floors above the administration block to house the many lecturers who now have to share a lecture room for a staff room. That would free up quite a few lecture rooms. We would also like to take over the rooms in the building now used by the adult and pre-school education centres of the education division.

"The college guarantees a quality education - and we are suffering the price of our success."