Shaping up for new priorities

As the country's needs develop, the University is shaping up for new priorities. A number of internal structures must change to reflect the many developments that are picking up pace.

The University is undergoing an important programme of work on the organisation's culture to ensure that its key values of integrity, commitment, confidence, respect, innovation and achievement remain at its heart. Changes are being introduced in several areas, namely the internationalisation of the University, the development of excellence in ICT, the ascertaining of quality and the validation of value of its undergraduate degrees, and the increase in quantity and quality of its postgraduate courses, research and innovation.

The success of this venture depends on how well the faculties and institutes draw upon the support offered by a range of shared central services including finance, HR, IT, policy, research, public relations and public affairs.

The changes being introduced should allow the University to focus on what society - including industry and civil administration - as well as students and academics themselves, want from the University. At the same time it must continue to fulfil its role of promoting knowledge for its own sake. The message the University must convey is that it is listening and responding to society's needs and will continue to do so not only throughout this period of change but also in future.

The need for such a public relations exercise was recently highlighted by the unwarranted negative comments made by the Malta Employers Association which fails to realise that if University academics are denied optimal conditions of work, employers would find difficulty to expanding their business through lack of availability of the only resource Malta has, namely properly educated professional personnel. Despite everything, it is essential for the University to be able to deliver relevant and sustainable education that is highly valued by employers, other economy stakeholders and the public.

The University needs to show society and the government evidence to back up its claims. There needs to be consistency of approach and strategy in the commissioning of the University's services. There have been several indications of where the University is heading. However, there is a need for more publicity of these plans. The devil is in the detail. Unfortunately, not enough of the University's plans deal in detail with their implementation. Nobody should be left out of the University's future plans.

The University should start by engaging a policy think-tank including both young, fresh thinkers as well as those who are retired or are about to. Elderly academics must in no way impose their views and those who dare do so must be resisted and stopped with full force. It would be irrational to allow the elders to dampen down fresh ideas and energy. But it would equally be folly to ignore the vast experience and international contacts of such a body of individuals as if they are now to be packed up and buried with their expertise and potential contribution.

The key word is evolution. The University is evolving and must continue to do so. It needs to build on its traditional strengths while at the same time develop fresh ideas and implement checks and changes in its structure. It needs to expand both intellectually and logistically. For this to happen it needs all the financial support possible in the forthcoming Budget. This should be forthcoming even at the risk of the country increasing its financial deficit from that planned.

One should not succumb to the world financial crisis by developing an intellectual deficit. A financial deficit may be repaired in the long term but there is no way of regaining a loss in intellectual capacity.