Strategic resonance

Ensuring that the University is strategic, focused and holistic in approach is vital. To ensure that strategic resonance takes place between the University and the country's requirements, a specific strategy has to be in place.

The strategy has to be specific to the requirements of Malta. Therefore it is important that we do not just copy strategies from outside. One should not rely solely on outside assessment and recommendations when dealing with appointments, promotions, examinations and quality assurance. We can neither afford the resources, especially financial, that are afforded to foreign universities nor can we charge fees to our students.

Undoubtedly, lessons may be learned from other universities but the processes, human capabilities and the nature of the provider will be peculiar to our island. For our University to be successful it must have specific operations strategies in place. This is where the role of senior professors can be vital, but this role is sometimes overlooked.

One must need to shift, say, from educating a large number of teachers to a number of information scientists and this change may have to be done quickly. Course structures and design have also to cater for the developments in science and technology. At the same time, each of the country's needs must be met by the University.

However a university with acknowledged areas of excellence also serves to create a demand for its graduates in those areas of excellence by attracting to it industries or service providers where those graduates are essentially needed. It is important to ensure that the University's strategy is in tandem with the country's mainstream strategy and consider what the market needs and also the capabilities of the university.

On the University's performance depends the quality of life of the population. The University must provide a consistent education. Its graduates must be dependable and perform adequately in many scenarios. Education must be given in the shortest time and the graduates must satisfy what the employers or clients need. This should be achieved at the lowest possible cost.

The University in Malta must educate all the spectrum of professionals and be able to introduce new areas quickly as it has done in the case of information technology. The University's strategy for education should not be thought of as an all-or-nothing scenario. It should not be a choice between what is required and what we can produce.

Strategy is about creating and sustaining a resonance between the needs of the country and the capabilities of the university and between the politicians and the academics. One of the primary reasons of a University's failure to be appreciated by society is that many look at it as a place for mass production of graduates. However it is essential that this institution of education moves into more enlightened approaches and needs to be strategic, focused and holistic in its planning and implementation.

One particular aspect that the University needs to address with the government is the massive attention given to the service industry, as if all the country's needs are in the service industry, Luckily, several attempts were made to reverse this attitude through rapid developments in some faculties such as in the faculty of engineering.

Undoubtedly the service industry tops the list of the needs for graduates from our University. But the key issue is this: service exports including tourism have not managed to plug the gap between manufactured imports and exports. Although Malta managed to improve its manufacturing base, most of the manufacturing was in the textile industry and now is centred on the export by a single enterprise.

This lack of a manufacturing base damages our economy because Malta still imports dramatically more manufactured products than it exports. The difference is unfortunately not met by the export of services. So we need to be clear that the University needs to build up a strategy to produce graduates who sustain manufacturing industry. The idea that manufacturing industry such as textiles can simply be replaced by service jobs without any harm coming to the economy is a myth.

The University needs a strategic resonance that will cater for graduates required for the service industry and equally for the manufacturing industry. An example of the manufacturing industry which requires the availability of workers with a tertiary education is the pharmaceutical industry. However one should not rely only on this development but should have a strategic plan to have graduates who can service the needs of industries in other areas.