Every traditional university needs to be in a position to provide adequate physical facilities to its undergraduates in order to help them optimise their output and achieve educational excellence. To achieve this objective, the university management needs to prioritise its spending plans like every other organisation with limited resources. This is by no means an easy task for the University of Malta, which is autonomous but not financially independent.
Recent events that attracted the public’s interest indicate that the university management may not be getting its priorities right in allocating resources for the provision of adequate physical facilities. The Malta Medical Students’ Association and the Malta Health Students Association have shown concern about the consequences of stalled progress in completing a medical faculty building project. They have called on the government, the university and Campus Hub Ltd, which owns the space, to secure the necessary funds for the lecture rooms and labs “desperately needed” by more than 1,000 students. Recently, angry students had protested about the “hyper-commercialisation of campus life” in the context of the private company’s operations.
The financial viability of higher educational institutions that depend on government funding suffers from short-term political decisions. These decisions disrupt the planning process undertaken by the institution’s management.
Health Minister Chris Fearne had, in 2019, announced that “the Maltese islands will have two of the best facilities in Europe”. He was referring to the proposed land development near Mater Dei Hospital for a new medical faculty. The other facility is Gozo’s Barts Medical School.
Fearne’s plans hit a brick wall when the minister of finance and, presumably, the cabinet could not find the money to complete the new medical school as promised.
The university management may have thought that a public-private partnership for the commercialisation of university facilities through the creation of the Campus Hub would ease their financial pressures. One must question whether they are getting their priorities right as many see a paradox in the reasoning underpinning their spending decisions.
The medical courses are among the toughest provided by the university. Students need to feel that the physical environment in which they work daily is conducive to improving their chances of successfully completing their courses. This is undoubtedly a factor that must be given priority when the university management decides on medium-term capital spending decisions.
Of course, students also expect to have other amenities that help make their university lives easier to manage, including cheap parking facilities, a scarce commodity for everyone living on today’s traffic-congested island. But it is not much use if students only raise their voices to an audible pitch when the price of parking becomes unaffordable.
In many countries, tertiary education students act as catalysts to bring about change in their societies. Malta’s students need to engage in more activism if they are to win the support of the public and bring about the change in the political culture that the country needs. However, many apparently prefer to sit on the fence and wait until they too become part of the establishment.
The need for education reform goes far beyond providing physical facilities. The university authorities must get their priorities right by ensuring that their investment decisions are clinically prioritised to satisfy the country’s most crucial educational needs.
Politicians must stop using education as a pre-election battle horse to win students’ support. The country needs to focus on how it can upgrade the outcome of its expensive but underperforming educational system.
This is the best investment to guarantee lifelong success for today’s young people.