The University of Malta needs to start generating proper revenue and get its finances in order, Clyde Caruana has said in a withering criticism of the state-run academic institution.
Caruana said he has “had enough” of the University making excuses, noting that his ministry has been chasing it to present clear finances “for years”.
"They should pull up their socks and roll up their sleeves and generate income," he told a live audience at a Times of Malta event held on Thursday morning. "I've had enough of this."
The University of Malta’s most recent publicly available financial statements date back to 2021. That year, it registered a deficit of €620,000.
Deficits are believed to have continued to accumulate in subsequent years, though their size remains unknown.
Writing in the foreword of the University of Malta’s 2023 annual report, Rector Alfred Vella attributed a budgetary shortfall to the government failing to increase its financial contribution in line with the additional outlay needed to finance increased salaries for academic staff.
According to the government’s financial estimates for 2024, the university received €91 million in state funding in 2023. It received €88.2 million in 2022 and is expected to receive €94 million this year.
The university employs over 1,500 people, with roughly two-thirds of that contingent made up of academics who teach more than 900 different courses. Well over 12,000 local students are enrolled in those programmes, with an additional 2,500 international students on campus.
Caruana defends subsidies for private schools
The Finance Minister also made it clear he is squarely in favour of a government plan to spend €27 million on subsidies for independent schools.
Subsidies were necessary because a new collective agreement to increase teachers’ salaries would have required such schools to raise their fees by 50%, he said.
And while some parents could afford that sort of increase, hundreds could not.
“Schools could have passed that increase onto parents, but then the state would have to accommodate the hundreds of students who move to state schools,” Caruana said.
Independent schools had argued that the increase was due to a state decision and that the state should therefore cover that cost. It was an argument that resonated with the finance minister.
"Popular, perhaps not... But logical, yes," he said.