Slashing the national budget for the University of Malta rather than reducing subsidies on fuel is an example of the government’s misguided priorities, the green party argued on Saturday.

“The University and education in general should be injected with additional financial resources in order to be more effective in the holistic development of our students,” ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said. 

“The best investment we can make is in the education of future generations. However the government has not prioritised tomorrow.”

The government has told the university that it will slash €1.1 million from its annual contribution as of this year, with that reduced budget likely to also apply the following year. The budget cut represents a roughly 1% reduction in national funding to the university.

Rector Alfred Vella has said that the cuts will require the university to postpone certain projects and could lead to research projects being cut back. Staff and salaries will not be affected, he told Times of Malta earlier this week.

While the government is looking at ways of cutting expenditure across all ministries, it has so far given no indication that it intends to curtail a subsidy on fuel and energy prices.

Electricity tariffs and fuel prices have remained frozen in Malta despite skyrocketing international prices, with the government spending hundreds of million to cover the difference and keep local prices stable. 

Times of Malta reported on Friday that maintaining the subsidy in place next year is likely to cost taxpayers €400 million. 

Spending on research

The decision to slash the university’s budget calls into question an electoral pledge made by the Labour Party earlier this year, in which it promised to raise spending on research and development to 2 per cent of GDP.

Malta currently spends well under 1 per cent of GDP on R&D, putting it among the lowest such spenders across the EU.

Cacopardo described Labour’s promise to increase spending to 2 per cent as a “fake pre-election pledge”. The ADPD has in past weeks argued that the government made similar false promises about Air Malta, in a bid to win over voters.