Tertiary Education in Malta is going through interesting times. Government, academic staff and students are all committed to excellence. There are indications that the level of education and the quantity of graduates is approaching what is required. Admittedly, in some areas development is not meeting the demands or has yet to start. The unfortunate aspect is that there are no justifiable reasons or any insurmountable problems in these cases.
Areas that can be given as examples are those of clinical psychology, where more progress is required, and veterinary surgery, where nothing has been done. Unfortunately some feel that in both cases the reason is that the lack of training of these professionals on our islands is rendering a hefty income to those concerned especially due to the little competition that exists in private practice. However this could hardly be the case. The fault lies with the University which did not insist enough with the government to obtain the necessary finance to develop these courses.
Despite a black mark here and there, the educational statistics for tertiary education are improving every year. The government has instilled confidence that the country will achieve its targets in the educational sector. There are other incentives which must now be given. The current punishing tax regime on education must be removed.
Educators, including heads of departments at the tertiary education level, are not only not afforded a car like those in business and at director level in the civil service but are not even given tax allowances for use of their own car to perform educational duties, such as visiting students on their placements. But the quest for excellence makes the academics forget about the many problems met and they continue to move out of the university campus to meet the needs of society.
Excellence at the tertiary education level must not only be achieved at the teaching level. Students who study abroad on a Socrates/Erasmus programme return to Malta enriched with the experience of having studied at universities which are by far better equipped than ours, especially in the scientific field; they urge others not to miss the opportunity of studying abroad. Yet, few fail to mention that the attention to students on a one-to-one basis given at our university is hard to match. Our efforts therefore now need to focus more on promoting research and development.
A fresh Advisory Committee for the Malta Council of Science and Technology (MCST), appointed by the Prime Minister, has a number of academics who will soon be having their second meeting with persons in industry and in the government. The agenda of the second meeting is dedicated to R&D. It is very important that one moves from words to action and the aim should be to develop areas of excellence in these fields as fast as possible.
The University needs to excel not only in its education of professionals in IT but must also, with equal excellence, prepare for the spin-offs expected from the SmartCity project. The Dubai-based company that plans to build a Lm110 million IT village in Malta is expected to start marketing the project as early as next year.
Malta needs good marketing people. Therefore marketing should also form an important aspect in our education system. We need to excel in our marketing exercises. There is also an immediate need for marketing our tourism industry and the pharmaceutical industry. We should also try to excel in some innovative marketing such as utilising prime sites which are crying for development, as in the case of Ricasoli. The University needs to train graduates who excel in marketing.
It is very important that the Faculty of IT is immediately set up. It has been said that the reason for the delay in setting up this Faculty was resistance from Engineering. But one can be sure that Engineering have enough on their plate as it is, having to cope with the ever increasing demands of industry, and they can shed administrative responsibility for the IT sector; that part of IT education which is attached to the Science Faculty also needs to be released. This will not only allow IT to develop with excellence but will give more elbow room for the science faculty itself to develop its research contribution.
On the other hand Pharmacy works well within the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. The good number of research projects carried jointly with members of other departments of the Faculty is a major reason for the success achieved in clinical pharmacy. Such teamwork in the clinical field has been the envy of many a foreign school of pharmacy, where the close collaboration evidenced in Malta between Pharmacy and the clinical departments is hard to find.
As far as the relations with the pharmaceutical industry perhaps the Pharmacy Department must be given more independence, since the industry is not used to work with the bureaucracy that exists in our University committees especially in approving research projects. More finance needs to be earmarked for the department to enable it to finance its part of the deal when the research is carried jointly with the pharmaceutical industry or through a European grant. Despite this, the department is working with the pharmaceutical industry involving different R&D projects.
Whether it is IT, pharmaceutical sciences, marketing, maritime law, or Mediterranean studies, excellence is the keyword. And it is this excellence towards which all at the University - academics, students and all staff are aiming at. It is a pleasure to witness all this achievement at our university.