It will soon be a year since the creation of the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta, bringing our university in line with other universities in the world in recognising and addressing the national development needs of modern technological solutions. As the dean of this new faculty, I feel that a few words are in order to complement its very short history and (still) hectic activity.
The area of ICT is a relative newcomer to the club of the more traditional scientific disciplines, such as the pure sciences and engineering. This area of academic endeavour is a direct result of the confluence of a number of modern technologies and techniques relating to such intertwined areas as computing (both the science and engineering of), information and business systems, artificial intelligence, integrated circuit (IC) design, and communication systems. This confluence is mainly the result of the ever-increasing quality requirements being placed in general on ICT solutions for local and global industrial needs.
The Faculty of ICT (FICT) sees its role in today's socio-economic landscape as multifaceted. In particular, I personally tend to broadly identify the faculty's roles as those of educator, incubator, innovator and integrator. The order in which these roles are listed is purely alphabetical and bears no relation to any importance attachment or prioritisation of these roles. I would like to dedicate the first part of this article to the role of the Faculty as educator and incubator, while I will use the second part to expand on its role as innovator and integrator.
Educator: Naturally, this is currently one of the main responsibilities of the FICT. The faculty is directly involved with the creation and management of new and existing degree programmes.
The responsibility of the faculty in this regard is not a simple one. We need to maintain a well-defined balance between study programme relevance and content quality according to our own internal, as well as international, standards.
To help maintain this balance, the faculty currently employs a number of approaches. These approaches include: (i) The annual visit of external examiners with distinguished international reputation from top UK universities to scrutinise and report on the ongoing academic quality of individual study programmes; (ii) The regular revision of existing study programmes in the light of national, professional, and technological realities, academic requirements and standards, and relevance to global and local industry; (iii) The readiness and willingness of the faculty to meet with industry, and/or their representative bodies, to keep an ear attuned to the needs of local employers; (iv) The encouragement of staff members to pursue doctoral studies in foreign universities helping to introduce new areas of study as well as bringing back different technological perspectives to enhance the exiting bouquet of expertise within the faculty; (v) The gradual increase of staff within the faculty's various departments enabling them to offer study programmes with even better coverage of all mainstream ICT areas; last but not least, the full compliance of FICT study programmes to the newly set up University-wide enhanced quality control infrastructure.
Incubator: The faculty also sees itself as an environment where new ideas and approaches can be exposed and matured, even up to practical adoption level.
In this aspect, the faculty is significantly involved in numerous specifically European, and/or international, projects, local consortia and initiatives, including internal university-funded research initiatives.
The faculty also boasts a healthy and thriving post-graduate community at both Master of Science and Doctorate levels. Various seminars and talks, as well as conferences in collaboration with other institutions, have been and are being organised by the faculty.
• Dr Cachia is the dean of the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta
The area of ICT is a relative newcomer to the club of the more traditional scientific disciplines, such as the pure sciences and engineering. This area of academic endeavour is a direct result of the confluence of a number of modern technologies and techniques relating to such intertwined areas as computing (both the science and engineering of), information and business systems, artificial intelligence, integrated circuit (IC) design, and communication systems. This confluence is mainly the result of the ever-increasing quality requirements being placed in general on ICT solutions for local and global industrial needs.
The Faculty of ICT (FICT) sees its role in today's socio-economic landscape as multifaceted. In particular, I personally tend to broadly identify the faculty's roles as those of educator, incubator, innovator and integrator. The order in which these roles are listed is purely alphabetical and bears no relation to any importance attachment or prioritisation of these roles. I would like to dedicate the first part of this article to the role of the Faculty as educator and incubator, while I will use the second part to expand on its role as innovator and integrator.
Educator: Naturally, this is currently one of the main responsibilities of the FICT. The faculty is directly involved with the creation and management of new and existing degree programmes.
The responsibility of the faculty in this regard is not a simple one. We need to maintain a well-defined balance between study programme relevance and content quality according to our own internal, as well as international, standards.
To help maintain this balance, the faculty currently employs a number of approaches. These approaches include: (i) The annual visit of external examiners with distinguished international reputation from top UK universities to scrutinise and report on the ongoing academic quality of individual study programmes; (ii) The regular revision of existing study programmes in the light of national, professional, and technological realities, academic requirements and standards, and relevance to global and local industry; (iii) The readiness and willingness of the faculty to meet with industry, and/or their representative bodies, to keep an ear attuned to the needs of local employers; (iv) The encouragement of staff members to pursue doctoral studies in foreign universities helping to introduce new areas of study as well as bringing back different technological perspectives to enhance the exiting bouquet of expertise within the faculty; (v) The gradual increase of staff within the faculty's various departments enabling them to offer study programmes with even better coverage of all mainstream ICT areas; last but not least, the full compliance of FICT study programmes to the newly set up University-wide enhanced quality control infrastructure.
Incubator: The faculty also sees itself as an environment where new ideas and approaches can be exposed and matured, even up to practical adoption level.
In this aspect, the faculty is significantly involved in numerous specifically European, and/or international, projects, local consortia and initiatives, including internal university-funded research initiatives.
The faculty also boasts a healthy and thriving post-graduate community at both Master of Science and Doctorate levels. Various seminars and talks, as well as conferences in collaboration with other institutions, have been and are being organised by the faculty.
• Dr Cachia is the dean of the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta