'Tough decisions' needed to strengthen University's finances

Tough decisions need to be taken if the University of Malta is to meet the country's high expectations, university rector Juanito Camilleri told The Sunday Times in an interview last week.

Professor Camilleri is not a moaner. He spent seven years as Go Mobile's first CEO, building it up from scratch into one of the island's two major mobile telephony providers.

Prior to being hand-picked by government to lead the university, he spent a year heading Melita Cable plc, and during this brief time he successfully helped transform the company, not only by setting up its fixed-line telephony service but by integrating its cable television, Internet and fixed telephony services.

He continues to exude the determination of a business manager who knows how to make his enterprise succeed and is now expecting the support and courage from his shareholders.

Barely a year into his appointment as rector, he has successfully steered through the University Senate approval to set up a new Faculty for ICT. "This alone will cost an estimated €15 million to build and equip," estimated Professor Camilleri, adding that the university was still waiting for MEPA to approve the development application, which was submitted on January 31.

"We appreciate that millions have already been invested in the university over the years and continue to be invested," he said, "but the country's aspirations and expectations being what they are, we need to put our heads together to see how more money can be channelled to the university."

"We want to reposition our faculties of science and engineering beyond awarding classical degrees to award degrees focused on particular sectors such as pharmaceuticals and food technology.

"The world of business was changing rapidly so a lot of 'soul-searching' was taking place to see how best to strengthen our marketing, tourism studies and other departments that still form part of the mega-faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy (FEMA).

e-learning strategy

The university is also seriously looking into the possibility of offering its courses using the Internet. Professor Camilleri said the university was already engaged in what he termed as "experiments" with e-learning courses.

"The university is in the process of designing an e-learning strategy to build on the existing services that its Computer Services Centre provides to support lecturers to create online courses.

"We need a policy to project the right image and implement the appropriate quality control," he said, adding that it was obviously easier to appraise and certify students' capabilities when they were physically present than through "fly-by-wire" operations.

No war chest

"We need proper resources for the incentives we are launching. We need the right level of funding to support the university's renaissance," he said.

"The university's human resources had a latent potential, which was being dampened due to the lack of financial reward.

"To keep and motivate our academic staff we need to be able to offer them attractive pay, otherwise there is the danger that our best people will go elsewhere or work for private industry.

"The university does not have a war chest or own property that can generate revenue streams that it can turn to for a source of funds," he remarked.

"The Old University Building in Valletta, which had been in the university's hands for hundreds of years, had been impinged upon. It should be completely returned to the university," he maintained.

Embarrassingly, even the university's yearly subvention is insufficient to meet recurrent expenditure - Professor Camilleri said the university would end this financial year Lm800,000 in the red.

"It is high time that this lack of financial resources was addressed," he said.

Professor Camilleri welcomed the Lm50 million that the government has allocated to fund a new MCAST campus.

"The university expects even more," he said, tongue slightly in cheek, "because the university already has twice the number of students as MCAST, and university level education is inherently more expensive."

The government is on record as saying that it wants to double the number of students attending MCAST and the university.

Tuition fees

Professor Camilleri expressed frustration at the ironic situation that the university finds itself in with regard to charging tuition fees for courses.

"We are holding discussions with other universities to launch joint degree programmes, which would involve students from various countries, including Malta, undertaking lectures at the various universities.

"However, unless we are legally permitted to charge fees at market rates to Maltese and EU students for such joint degree programmes, it will not be viable for us to offer them.

"At the same time any foreign university could and are setting up operations in Malta, offering similar courses without any restrictions regarding fees.

"Foreign universities are competing for Maltese students and the University of Malta is at an unfair disadvantage," he protested.

"Even for our evening courses, the university was legally restricted to charge at way below cost. The least that we should be allowed to do is to recoup our costs," he remarked.

"The university cannot charge EU students for almost any of its courses so long as there were no tuition fees for Maltese students. A solution to this situation is needed," he stated.

Professor Camilleri pointed to the success story of the International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI), which is hosted on the university campus, and which charges fees and attracts students from all over the world, including Malta.

He also referred to the UK universities' status of charities, which meant that donors could contribute funds to the universities and receive tax rebates on the contributions.

"It was high time that the university is allowed to set up a trust fund - with all the required monitoring and transparency - so that companies and alumni could contribute funds into it," he said.