Last Month's highlights issue of Bioforum Europe carried an article on "Academia and Industry in Sweden", which consisted mainly of an interview with Mathias Uhlen, Professor of Microbiology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. Professor Uhlen, after winning other major honours, last March received the Arzo Nobel Science Award for 2005.
Last week an article on "Industry and the University" was published in The Times' Business Section. This also consisted mainly of an interview, this time with the Rector of the University, Professor Roger Ellul Micallef, by Vanessa Macdonald. In it the Rector vented his exasperation over calls for the University to forge closer links with industry.
Professor Uhlen was asked about what attracts large international companies such as GE Healthcare or Biocare to set up shop in Sweden. He said these included the country's long tradition of technology-driven research with a number of Nobel laureates. Sweden also has a large number of skilled and experienced persons in the field of life science.
Sweden has low corporate taxes and a skilled workforce at Ph.D. level is relatively cost-effective in comparison to the US or most of Europe. Finally Professor Uhlen mentioned that in general terms, Sweden also spends more on R&D as a percentage of GNP than any other country in Europe (close to four per cent).
One could argue that Malta will never reach those levels. Yet we know that Malta is attracting a significant number of pharmaceutical companies; admittedly, many of them still have a number of foreign scientists, yet a few Maltese have already become Qualified Persons (QPs), a significant number of them graduates of our University's Department of Pharmacy, even though the history of the pharmaceutical industry and of R&D is quite young in Malta.
Our strong pharmacy department has included in its curriculum areas studies such as bio-pharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics, highly relevant to the R&D area, from the very conception of the subjects over 30 years ago. The department has since then awarded a number of research degrees (M.Phil. and also Ph.D.). It is now embarking on its taught M.Sc. starting in October with specialisation in Industrial Pharmacy, Pharmaco-economics and Clinical Pharmacy.
This is in response to Robert Wessman's views expressed in another interview also given to Ms Macdonald published in the same issue of The Times' Business Section (February 9). Mr Wessman, who is the CEO of Actavis (probably the most active pharmaceutical company in Malta and which is developing at a fast rate), states that among the changes he wishes to see at the University is a Master's degree.
It is true that it took a very long time to get approval from the Post-graduate Degree Committee of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery for a project which was to be carried out by an employee of the pharmaceutical industry and which is of particular interest to the industry and to Malta. It is also true that some of the members of the Research Committee are still green in their knowledge of the needs of the pharmaceutical industry.
The Rector and Deans should decide to delegate some functions to the departments. The University has become large and the times of former Rector Professor Edwin Borg Costanzi, who could take all decisions single-handedly, are long past. For example, acceptance of students for an M.Phil. degree should be taken at departmental level.
Industry has to take timely decisions and they are not used to wait for days on end for papers to move to and fro from departments to faculties to senate to council and hopefully, now, not also to the Commission of Higher Education.
The Council, Senate, Rector, Deans should decide on policy and leave day-to-day decisions to the departments. How could Senate, for example, decide on an application for an M.Phil. if they do not seek the advice of the experts in the field?
The Rector is correct in stating that research does not only require administrative commitment. It also requires equipment, which is costly and quickly becomes obsolete. It is also good to witness the launch of a post-graduate diploma in applied chemistry which may help to provide trained personnel to work in the pharmaceutical industry. One cannot but wish the new diploma well and congratulate the Rector for its inception.
Care is also needed when dealing with student numbers. We have to be very diligent on the standard to be attained. The Rector rightly expects all tertiary education in Malta to keep up the high-level that the University is known for. We still have students in Pharmacy who satisfied entry requirements with a Grade D and even an E in Chemistry. Thanks to the very hard work of the University staff and the students themselves they succeeded to struggle along the years.
Few, if any, European universities accept students to the pharmacy course with less than a B in Chemistry A-level. Yet Senate is very hesitant to accept the Faculty Board's recommendation to increase the entry grade of Chemistry to B, possibly because they wish to flood the market with pharmacists to keep wages as competitive as possible. Yet this was the first year when not all pharmacy graduates found a job, even those who wished to take up a post with the pharmaceutical industry. For the first time Government had over 50 applicants for about 12 vacancies for pharmacists.
Another important point is that we have to abide by European directives and the country's laws. Therefore it does not make sense for a columnist like Lino Spiteri to try to poke fun at the placements carried out by final-year pharmacy students in community pharmacy by hinting that they are only there to sell condoms and shampoos (The Times, February 2). This is not a matter for ridicule.
The placements are in accordance with the law of the land and EU directives. In Malta pharmacy students spend the minimum EU requirement of six consecutive months at a community pharmacy. In the UK a whole year is required.
Or is Mr Spiteri perhaps suggesting that community pharmacies should do without a pharmacist and in this way we will have some 200 pharmacists to give their service to local industry at a very competitive cost?
One should note that a good number of pharmacy students do carry out a very useful and rewarding placement of a whole semester during their fourth year at a local pharmaceutical firm, thanks to the co-operation of the industry.
The Rector is correct to voice his exasperation over calls for the University to forge closer links to industry. It is wise to note that these links already exist. There is definitely room for improvement. But in the words of Robert Weismann we need to say that "It is time to be less negative!" and that it is also true and positive that we have a Rector who is a great believer in networking.