'Massive' financial problems at university

The university's budget is being stretched to the limit and matters have now come to a head, according to the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (Umasa), which has just been registered as a trade union.

The union is concerned about the "significant deficit" and the "massive" financial problems the university is facing, predicting that "something is about to crack".

The problem is funding, Umasa said, explaining that this has been falling over the years. Last year's faculty budget allocations were half those of the year before and this year's were again less than half of last year's, the union said.

The funds are urgently required even for basic, fundamental resources, down to photocopy paper and toner - "just to be able to operate".

The university needed a commitment from the government - a sign that it was aware of what needed to be done and that it understood the situation and would fork out the necessary funds.

"We do not expect miracles but we want to reach an agreement to set tangible targets," Umasa secretary Michael Saliba told The Times.

"The more the student population grows, the more resources are required. But the government uses the argument that it is forking out millions of liri in stipends, which are, in fact, not a resource for the university.

"On the contrary, the more students, the more stipends, the greater the need for more resources. The university needs to be funded to provide a service," Dr Saliba said.

"Moreover, with EU membership, it is unknown how many more foreign students will be joining the university in October, stretching its resources even further, with no extra funds being poured in," Umasa PRO Angela Xuereb said.

One of the major roles of a university lecturer was research but because of the low funds there had been no university research grant whatsoever.

"A good university should be doing research, which is then published in international journals. Indeed, one of the measures of a good university is the number of publications," Dr Saliba said. "The contribution of research to local industry, society and even to the level of teaching in the various degree programmes is of utmost importance."

Also, the promotion of lecturers was based on the number of their publications. So, with no funds for research, promotions were harder to come by.

Research in universities was often carried out with the assistance of post-graduate students, who would receive a scholarship to do it and get their Masters degree or PhD in the process. However, there were no funds for that either, Prof. Xuereb said. Money was also required for equipment as well as for administrative support to cater for the large number of students - 10,000.

The lack of funds was making it difficult for university research groups to join collaborative research programmes, for example the European Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). Funding was required too in order to upgrade facilities and lecture rooms needed to be equipped with, for example, projectors for power-point presentations, which were more common nowadays. The faculty of engineering, for example, has only one projector, which has to be booked and shared.

Some lecturers also shared offices, which proved to be a distraction.

Listing other financial problems, Prof. Xuereb said the library had hardly bought any books in the last two years. It had just about enough funds to pay for the journals it was subscribed to, although it was even cutting down on these.

Access to journals and to research databases was a must for research, Dr Saliba insisted.

All lecturers have experience of universities abroad; they know how these databases work and are used to having them at their fingertips, he said, adding that "we want to see this university functioning the way it should".

Founded as a professional body and an effective pressure group in 2001, the union has made a claim for sole representation of university academic members of staff, as distinct from Junior College staff, to ensure that their interests are better represented

The Malta Union of Teachers, which currently represents university lecturers, has a very wide agenda, while Umasa would be dedicated to a particular sector and is more aware of the needs of university lecturers and professors, it maintains.