University team places third in high calibre symposium

Nine University of Malta students achieved an outstanding achievement when they placed third in the SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) European Symposium, held recently in Warsaw.

Universities from all around Europe participate in the high calibre symposium, comprises teams conducting structured business presentations about projects before a panel of 12 judges, which considers their relevance to the criteria as set by SIFE, including financial literacy and business ethics.

The event is organised annually by SIFE International, a non-profit organisation that includes over 2,000 SIFE teams from universities from 54 countries around the globe, and Malta was represented in this event for the second year through the University's SIFE team, which is supported in all its endeavours by HSBC Bank Malta plc. Last year, in its debut in the symposium, which was held in Paris, the University of Malta team had won the Spirit of SIFE award.

In the first round of this year's event, the Malta team rivalled against the teams from Belarus and the Netherlands with projects that it had been developing throughout the past two academic years.

After all the countries had staged their presentations, the winners from each league were announced. It was a moment of great satisfaction for the Maltese students to see the Maltese flag being pulled out of the envelope and the name "Malta" resounding through the hall. The Maltese team had beaten Aston University and Wroclaw University of Economics, the SIFE teams from the United Kingdom and Poland respectively, and managed to get to the final round, to compete with the teams from Germany, Albania and France. The latter went on to win the event.

Placing third was a great feat for the Maltese delegation. Carl Grech, the local team president said that this experience will undoubtedly be a boost for Maltese students within the organisation who have proved that they have the potential to succeed not only locally but also on an international level.