Law on higher education proposed

The University Students' Council has proposed that an entire Act of the Laws of Malta be dedicated to post-secondary and tertiary education.

The proposal is contained in a report, called The University of Tomorrow, submitted to the government for consideration as it draws up a new Education Act.

The voluminous report was released last week at the KSU's annual higher education conference. It was the fruit of 600 man- hours' work by a student think-tank on the reform of the Act.

It argues that institutions of higher education are fundamentally different from institutions at secondary and other levels. They are more autonomous, involve voluntary rather than obligatory learning and a high degree of specialisation, which lead to core differences in administration, standards, admission guidelines and other aspects. Thus a distinct law was required.

A separate act is also justified by the sheer volume of legislation on tertiary education which remains to be enacted, the KSU holds. This is in light of the creation of ITS and MCAST, the emerging market of higher education institutions, the increasing complexity of university structures due to swelling student numbers and the necessity for national structures to regulate such institutions.

The student council suggests that certain functions of the university should be enshrined in a new Act. Among them is to provide higher education to people of all ages and prepare them for the professions, and to respond to changes in the job market by supplying graduates specialised in the necessary fields.

While not rejecting the concept of learning solely for personal enrichment, the KSU believes the university needs to meet the needs of the job market as well as to enable people to continue their professional development or to retrain.

Other university functions proposed for the law are on the use of its collection of expertise "for the good of society", and its role as a repository of essential knowledge.

The KSU feels that, as a publicly funded institution, it has a certain duty to society, and it also has an important knowledge-archiving role because of its Melitensia collection and storage of theses.

The KSU itself would like to see an increase in student representation on university governing bodies and wants to be recognised as the official representative union of all students attending the Junior College and the university.

It sees the need for guidelines to be laid down on the schedule of meetings of governing bodies, which it feels convene too infrequently.

It wants to see a board of discipline independent of the university, and changes in the University Council's composition to give it more autonomy from the government.

However, it would like the university's audited accounts to be scrutinised by the House Standing Committee on Public Accounts before a report is tabled in Parliament.

And it would like companies set up by the university administered by a board of directors made up of businessmen rather than academics.

Other proposals concern the officers of the university and its powers, oversight and resources.