Good governance is founded on transparency, subsidiarity with inherent checks and balances, and the rule of law. It should be the starting point and basis of any administrative structure and any process of decision-making, whether at the governmental level or at the level of a public entity, such as Mcast.
Mcast senior management’s declared drive towards centralisation by concentrating all decision making in the hands of a handful of managers, overriding lecturers and academics, is the antithesis of good governance. It results in the propagation of poor standards and the demotivation of lecturing staff, who, along with the students, are the main assets at Mcast.
Early this year, the Mcast principal publicly admitted to a newspaper that the boards of studies of its six institutes were suspended for over a year. These boards are fora where lecturers and management plan and take decisions about courses.
Effectively, Mcast management breached the Education Act’s Article 99.3, which requires that these boards of studies convene every six weeks. The gravity of this unlawful suspension mirrors the disintegration of the rule of law in our intuitions where appointed high public officials deem that they can suspend the law at will.
To aggravate matters, Mcast failed to appoint heads of departments within each institute, as required by the Education Act. This means that respective departments lack professional and expert direction from people holding the highest qualifications and commitment to research in the department’s specialisation.
The appointed bureaucrats and institute directors cannot offer this expertise, especially since none of the institute directors at Mcast (except one) holds a PhD or has any significant research output. This raises questions on what criteria were used in the selection of directors at Mcast. Has mediocrity replaced Labour’s promised meritocracy?
Has mediocrity replaced Labour’s promised meritocracy?
The institutional deterioration started some years ago and remains unchecked. In 2015, Mcast declared itself a “University College”. Many believed this would mark an era of higher standards and coherent structures that would benefit all. In reality, Mcast management never applied for a licence from the regulator to operate as a university.
Effectively, students and the public were duped for three years into believing Mcast is a university. It may be a very important educational institution in Malta, but not a university. I had raised this matter more than once myself and also challenged Mcast to answer my persistent questions about it, to which, of course, they could not respond.
Furthermore, a few days into my first article pointing this out, the term ‘university college’ was no longer being used. A few months ago, the Mcast principal publicly conceded to this illegality, therefore suggesting I was right about it.
In May 2019, the Mcast Board of Governors approved the Research Framework document, albeit enacted in breach of the law because it fails to mention the boards of studies responsible by law for the evaluation and planning of research at Mcast.
The Research Framework regurgitates the past notion of lecturers applying for ‘research hours’, although now they need to ingratiate themselves with their institute director and two deputy principals to get their signatures on the application. The same institute director would later evaluate the research done.
The new process defies the principle of good governance which requires that a third, independent party should evaluate the research hours and not the same officer who granted them, namely, the institute director.
Previously, the nine-member Mcast Research Committee, which included the top researchers at Mcast, did that job. Sadly, this committee was wilfully removed and good governance was replaced by the centralised managerial mechanism devoid of checks and balances and prone to abuse.
The Research Framework also requires institute directors to “monitor” researchers. Such monitoring, coupled with centralisation, is reminiscent of the failed Soviet-style control of intelligentsia and defies the principle of subsidiarity adopted throughout Europe. Researchers do not need monitoring but need support in the form of research funds and laboratories, which remain very thin on the ground.
Owen Bonnici, the new minister for education, promised to investigate Mcast’s award of a suspect contract to Keith Schembri’s Kasco Ltd. To be credible, the minister should extend the investigation to include the senior management’s breach of the Education Act and the undermining of both good governance and academic standards, if Mcast is to regain its respectful and rightful place in society.
Resignation to poor governance or the upholding of the law will be the litmus test for Owen Bonnici. “Mcast merits respect”, I was once told!
Justin Schembri is a Nationalist councillor for the Birkirkara council and a candidate for the general election.