At the end of July, my term as dean of the reputable Faculty for Social Wellbeing will be up. After two electable terms totalling eight years, I felt it was time to shift my focus and hinge it on other duties that I feel are equally important as an academic, namely teaching and research. Apart from that, I am a strong believer in rotation when it comes to leadership.

I vividly recall that day in 2016 when I received the news of my election. I just couldn’t believe it. From a near-school drop-out, hadn’t it been for the patience and perseverance of my parents, to lead one of the largest and fastest growing faculties at the University of Malta. What a privilege!

My first shot at leadership was very simple. This faculty had to become a loop in the social welfare dialogue. In fact, we worked tirelessly to position the faculty, a raison d’être coated in the principle of ‘social justice’.

During these eight years, we have managed to top 1,000 students, offer more than 60 different course programmes, increase our resident academics to 60, our researchers from nil to 11, over 20 administrative staff members, circa 150 causal lecturers and over 100 PhD candidates (who are at different stages in their studies).

We have also managed to secure €1.7 million for research outside of University of Malta funds. This is probably one of the proudest achievements because, through these funds, we were able to provide government entities, authorities, local councils, regional governments, VOs, commissioners and private entities with empirical data that would help them navigate through their agendas, whether it is the development of policy, strategy or services.

This is an important shift from what we were used to in the social sector. Before, it was just setting it up and seeing afterwards if the service/project is sustainable. It is a pity that some government ministries have chosen to embargo some of these reports, possibly because they feel they do not feature favourable statistics.

We also managed to secure another quarter of a million euros in funds, once again external to the university, which helped us promote the faculty, its courses and democratise knowledge. In the process, we have generated funds to sponsor six full-time PhDs and published an endless list of books, papers and monographs, as well as a limitless inventory of open access grey literature.

But outreach is possibly what characterised us most. We were out in the media with over 150 contributions a year in some form or another. We made it a point to share our expertise, our knowledge and our data, as well as our opinions. Our academics were out and about, something that we should all be doing more of, spearheading and supporting social causes.

We have also been at the helm of putting issues on the agenda, for example, ‘loneliness’, with two documentaries, two pieces of research and a list of 100 proposals to combat this social ailment, research on ‘death’, the mental impact of ‘traffic’, the effect of ‘past traumas’, ‘domestic violence’ (which was highly quoted in the Valenzia report following the assassination of Bernice Cassar), and ‘child abuse’, to name a few.

We tried to understand what people are worried about, went to the drawing board, did the research and presented a study. In these eight years, we have accumulated circa 1,500 social policy proposals, most of which are evidence-based.

The faculty is also embarking on a project, Promise, focusing on ‘poverty’, another issue we have worked tirelessly on, and we have secured at least €300,000 for this research, possibly going up to half a million euros. Not only that, the faculty has also embraced a number of new fields within its departments, namely: migration studies, dementia studies, child studies, community development, sexualities and LGBTQi+ studies.

We have tried to communicate in every way possible that came to mind: streamers, bus wraps, vlogs, podcasts, billboards, SMS alerts, publications, newspaper and online ads, videos, TV, radio, a children’s book, magazines, newspaper advertisements, social media content, the whole hog, because, for us, linking up with the community is of the essence.

The social agenda has been contaminated with partisan politics- Andrew Azzopardi

As the rector rightly says, this is an Università ta’ Malta – a University ‘of’ Malta – and cannot be separated from the social texture. The work we all did was complemented by taking strong positions through our regular press releases on a myriad of controversial issues. We were out there in the line of fire, taking in the aggravation but never ceasing to say it how it is, whether it is about Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, the racist killing of Lassana Cisse, precarious prison conditions, the El Hiblu 3 campaign, threats to our professions, legalisation of drugs, and so on and so forth.

Eight years down the line, I have really bitten the apple and can see things more clearly.

I feel that the social sector is not in a good place. It lacks leadership, whether it is in the voluntary sector, government entities, or politicians responsible for leading the sector. We do not have a clear vision of where we need or want to go, and there is a general sense of apathy. People seem to have given up. There isn’t enough chemistry between the government and VOs and the latter keep getting sidelined and struggle to have the necessary funding that keeps their operations going beyond a brief life cycle.

Added to this, repeatedly, politicians go to parliament and arrogantly process legislation without taking it through the professionals and the grassroots, and, when we resisted, and I hope we will still do, what we got were defensive reactions and attempts at cancellation.

It is indeed the right time for a new crop of people to lead. We need people who are motivated by the cause, have the drive, belief, conviction and ambition, and do not simply strive to appease. We need services that are working like clockwork, not colliding with each other.

The truth is that we are not keeping up with the complex changes in our demography. Apart from that, reports keep coming through that the social agenda has been contaminated with partisan politics, which have blurred the focus from the cause, and this not to mention the fact that VOs are now on their knees with the excessive bureaucracy stemming from the corrupt politicians and their lackeys, which have led to greylisting.

Not enough money is being put into the sector and a lot of waste is going into social services and non-contributory pensions that need to be re-thought with a new model in mind, less one of dependency and rather one of empowerment.

We also lack good legislation that really protects the vulnerable.

Our operational systems are not keeping up and are outdated and it seems that everyone is doing their own bit, isolated from the bigger picture.

So, there is still loads to do.

But, then again, the last to die is hope; let us prevail.

A faculty is as good as its ability to be a pain in the backside.

I thank all who have been part of this journey and am grateful that the Faculty for Social Wellbeing has been a lighthouse that has paved the way for many, me included.

Andrew Azzopardi is dean, Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta.