The University of Malta has given great importance to ensuring that students have the proper IT facilities. The range of computing facilities and services, mostly free of charge, offered to assist students with their academic and university work-related needs, is managed by the Computing Services Centre (CSC).
Foreign students at the University have also commented favourably on the services offered and some have found them better than those in their home university.
The CSC, which is responsible for the campus network infrastructure, maintains computer workstations for use by students; most of these are found in computer labs located at various buildings on the University campus.
The campus network connects together into one virtual campus all offices, laboratories and buildings that are located at the various University sites in Malta and Gozo. Services available over the campus network include Internet, access to Library online periodicals, and access to other University information systems.
Access to these computer workstations is available to all students who have a CSC Student Account. The facilities offered include the use of standard application software packages, Web browsing, e-mail, printing and scanning facilities. Software packages available include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, SPSS, Acrobat and PhotoShop.
All students are allocated a University e-mail address for their academic use. They can use CSC workstations to access their e-mail from campus and they can also access this e-mail from any computer that can connect to the Internet.
There are over 120 such computer workstations, located in five computer labs and other open access areas around campus. Some of these labs are shared between the CSC and a department. During peak periods the labs act as public access rooms, and at other times of the day the labs are used by the department for its own specific needs. It is envisaged that more arrangements of this type will be entered into next year increasing significantly the number and range of locations of the available workstations.
The CSC is also planning to install wireless access points in suitable campus locations where students having their own laptops would be able to gain roaming access to the campus network in these wireless zones.
High quality monochrome and colour printing facilities and also scanning facilities are offered on a self-service basis, and students can pay for printing by means of the stipends card. They can also buy a range of software at academic prices for educational use on home computers. Other services such as document binding and sale of blank floppies are also available.
The CSC also offers training courses to enhance the computing skills of students. These courses cover most of the software packages mentioned above as well as Web browsing and use of e-mail.
The CSC is also an Accredited European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Test Centre, offering students the opportunity of obtaining an internationally recognised qualification in computing skills. Some departments have even included the ECDL as part of their course requirements and students can train for this and take the required tests on campus at the CSC.