In light of the various opinions voiced against lecturers and the stand taken by students' organisations, we, the undersigned, being university students ourselves, would like to entirely dissociate ourselves from such selfish statements. These manifestations reached their pinnacle with the recent rally held at university.
Apparently, those posting comments on the internet have no real clue what these demands are about. The problem with many Maltese is that they only follow stories by word of mouth, and they are misled and often only get to hear one side of the story.
"Lecturers should start, first and foremost, to give the lectures they should be giving" - This is the type of comment you would find under stories relating to lecturers. Well, in reality, the great majority of full-time lecturers do deliver their lectures with utmost dedication. Therefore, the fuss about absenteeism is utterly unfounded. Unquestionably, some lecturers do stray away from their full responsibilities. However, this is the exception rather than the rule.
Every student can, of course, recount anecdotes as well as facts regarding lecturers in their respective faculties and departments. As students within the Italian department we can say that all our lecturers proved to be dedicated, professional and really erudite.
Many a time, you get to hear a student grumbling that we never get a 'free' lesson, thus further proving our point. In addition, more often than not, if a lecturer is unavailable for one reason or another, they try to swap lectures with a colleague to make sure that we get what we are entitled to. Besides, we are always informed in advance if there is any alteration to our schedule.
In our humble opinion, rather than lambasting professors and lecturers, students should support them. We need to lure them into staying at our university, rather than push them away by giving them deplorable salaries. This is the only 'bargaining tool' at their disposition.
They are not striking because they mean us any harm, but because they want to make their voice heard. When other professionals asked for a rise in their pay, they got it; so why shouldn't lecturers? After all, without our university professors, we can get no other professionals.
This is the time where promises must be kept. The government promised a state-of-the-art university, and without the current lecturers, the crème de la crème of our society, this promise can never be fulfilled.