EU membership and the university

The university has to operate within a very tight budget. The junior college is in a worse plight as its budget for 2003 is short by over Lm200,000 and is managing to survive on funds pumped into it from money originally allocated to the university.

A cost-cutting exercise is already underway. The university's playschool for the children of students and staff is being downsized. The academic work resources fund for a staff of 680 lecturing at the university and junior college is being slashed to Lm540,000, down by 26 per cent from Lm733,772 two years ago.

The financial constraints on the university will become tighter if Malta were to join the European Union. To meet the cost of EU membership on the university, the government would have to increase taxes or public debt to finance higher spending on staff and facilities to cater not just for Maltese and Gozitan students but for students from EU countries as well.

A few years ago the university appointed a committee, coordinated by Josef Lauri, "to examine and report on the likely impact on the university arising from Malta's admission to the EU".

According to the report, one of the benefits of membership would be the right of students from EU member states to come and study in Malta.

The Lauri committee insists that the university has to invest in physical and human resources to be able to meet the increased number of students from EU countries coming to study at the university.

The government has presented three budgets since the report was drawn up and its recommendations for increased public funds to the university has been totally ignored.

The report states: "More students mean increased expenses and a thinning of resources since these have to be shared out to meet broader demands. This is true for the university, its faculties and the departments, which are effectively being discouraged from attracting more students for want of adequate resources.

"Following accession to the EU, the situation may become worse because, if the present system of funding persists, EU students will, like their Maltese counterparts, not be charged a fee. This will mean that the University of Malta will be positively discouraged from marketing its courses in Europe and from trying to attract European students. In this way the University of Malta will be placed in a situation which is quite the opposite of the trend taking place abroad. In the long term, it will have a negative effect on the university's efforts and ability to maintain standards and could lead to our university becoming a provincial outcast rather than an international centre of learning."

The consequence of this is made clear by the Lauri committee: "It is clear that the admission of an unlimited number of European students could produce serious problems to the university's infrastructure. It may therefore be necessary to take action to limit the intake to a desired level. The imposition of a numerus clausus is one way of ensuring this but it could give rise to a highly undesirable situation where suitably qualified Maltese nationals are denied admission to the University of Malta and have to emigrate to receive their tertiary education".

The Lauri committee recommends: "A more realistic way of limiting numbers from overseas is either by raising entry requirements or by raising fees. In both cases Maltese students would be similarly affected since EU students will have the right to equal access to higher education as Maltese students".

The Lauri committee warns: "Even if no intake-reducing measures are taken, the influx of any number of EU students would still have an impact on the Maltese student who would have a lesser share of university's resources (labs, canteen, library, lecture rooms, contact with lecturers, etc.).

"With regard to the level of student intake, it will be necessary for each department to carry out an exercise to establish the number of students it will be able to handle (a) with present resources and (b) with enhanced resources.

"On the basis of this information the central administration will be in a position to decide whether to consider the introduction of a numerus clausus across the board or only in certain given areas. This exercise will also need to involve the library, the canteen, lecture halls and any other common facilities so that an overall maximum carrying capacity will be established."

The Lauri committee then considers the implications of university tuition fees: "To date, all international students, including European Union students at the University of Malta, are paying tuition fees. If, on accession, the university maintains the fees for European students, then Maltese students will also need to be charged fees or, alternatively, as has already been indicated above, European students cannot be charged fees".

The Lauri report argues that joining the EU would make EU funds accessible to the university but no tangible evidence is provided of the amount of these funds.

No wonder that the serious implications of the Lauri committee report are being glossed over to hide the undesirable effects of EU membership on our university and our children.

Mr Bartolo is the Malta Labour Party's spokesman for education