Academics are rallying in support of Peter Mayo, the well-respected 68-year-old professor who has been refused an extension to a full professorship position.
Commenting on Facebook, several academics publicly expressed their dismay at the news of Mayo's extension not being approved. Support for Mayo came from local and international colleagues alike.
John Baldacchino, a professor of arts education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, described Mayo as "a source of great inspiration in our field worldwide". Support also came from architect Conrad Thake, historian Yosanne Vella, and linguist Ray Fabri, among several others.
International colleagues such as Finnish academic Juha Suoranta and Klitos Symeonides, president of the Cypriot adult education association, also criticised the decision.
Extension denied despite unanimous recommendation
In a Facebook post, Professor Mayo aired his grievances with the university, saying that despite having a unanimous recommendation from the Faculty of Education endorsed by its Dean, the university’s council decided to override this guidance and deny him the full professorship position, deciding that he should remain a resident academic at the institution instead.
The veteran academic also alluded to the possibility that some untoward motive was behind the decision to deny him renewal in his previously held position.
“A dean who is council member recently had the gall to ask me, out of the blue, whether I should retire. My answer was that I feel I have given and will continue to give my best to students and the international research community,” he said.
“My record is there for all to see. A mere glance at Google Scholar citations would reveal why. What I took lightly and playfully now took a sinister turn.”
"Shame on the University. Shame on the failed neoliberal state which is overrepresented on council," he wrote.
Mayo said that many other academics have been allowed to continue in such positions well into their 70s, some of whom did not quite have a track record in research as abundant as his.
“It is disheartening to attempt to create all the work on behalf of the UNESCO Chair in Global Adult Education on half pay. I might have to seek pastures new,” he said.
Mayo said that he had recently designed an online MA course in Adult Education and throughout his career had “helped place the University on the map”.
With over 100 papers to his name, Mayo serves as book series editor for Sense Publishers, Bloomsbury Academic, and Palgrave-Macmillan and is on the editorial team for the refereed journal Postcolonial Directions in Education. He presently also serves on the editorial advisory board of several international peer-reviewed journals, including the International Journal of Lifelong Education, Journal of Transformative Education, and Educational Philosophy and Theory.
Times of Malta has sent questions to the University of Malta about the matter.