University life 'as interesting as you make it', students told

The president of the University Students' Council, James Scicluna, has called on students to take a more active part in what goes on at the university and in the country.

Speaking earlier this week at a welcoming ceremony for close to 4,000 new university students, Mr Scicluna put much emphasis, as other KSU presidents have done before him, on the importance of participation.

But apart from attending and taking part in activities, he said, students also needed to do more thinking and to convey that thinking.

"We youths are often criticised for being apathetic. Students need to provoke more debate, express their opinions more and take a greater role, as a student body, in what is happening at the university and in the country," he told the gathered freshers.

He offered a piece of advice: "University life is as interesting as you make it".

He ended by saying that the KSU's doors were always open to any student wanting to take part in activities - ranging from the sporting to the religious - or to answer questions of an academic nature.

Earlier, he mentioned that the KSU had spent some Lm7,000 in upgrading Student House. He announced the opening soon of new facilities such as a first aid room and a new front office from which the KSU could offer a number of services, including taking student complaints.

Referring to the KSU's recently published environmental policy paper, he urged students to adopt car-sharing systems or to use other modes of transport, not only to care for the environment but in view of the university's space problems.

Mr Scicluna's main theme was "towards the internationalisation of the university".

He called on a few faculties, which he did not name, to stop making it difficult for students to go on exchange visits to other countries.

He said the university's prestige was gauged by the quality of its research, the published work of students and academics, as well as by the ability of students to be successful in the world of work.

"The university's administration has a responsibility to foster an environment in which these aims are better encouraged.

"More funds are needed for research, and the property rights of researchers and of those who publish their work need to be respected and protected.

"Emphasis needs to be placed not just on exams, but also on ideas and putting them into practice."

Mr Scicluna also called upon students, in their natural ambition to reach for success in a competitive environment such as the university's, not to relegate values such as friendship, solidarity and respect to second place.