Put quality before quantity, University students insist

Students need quality education rather than just stipends and buildings, according to a critical report by the University Students' Council.

While praising government's efforts to increase student numbers in higher education over the past two decades, the council (KSU) has called for a culture change which would start putting quality before quantity.

KSU said there had been a clear shift from an elite concept of education to a more accessible system but now Malta's major concern was not how many students were learning but how many of them were completing their courses successfully. It noted that Malta, along with Portugal, had the lowest completion rate in the EU.

"The cost of not tackling these issues is higher than the cost of taking serious action," KSU education coordinator Daniela Bartolo, who authored the report, said.

KSU also expressed concern that, while more schools were being built and various reforms were proposed, there was no sufficient investment in teachers' resources and training.

The report outlined various areas of concern in Malta's declared bid to become a "centre of excellence" by 2015. A main point of concern for KSU is that students are not partici-pating enough in educational travel experiences because of the barriers mounted by the University itself.

These, the KSU said, included a disorganised international office and the lack of cooperation from various departments and faculties when it came to sorting out the syllabus and transfer of credits.

"Unless this issue is immediately addressed, the country will not reach the targets set in the Lisbon Agenda and (the government's) Vision 2015," the report warned.

Regarding students' participation in courses such as maths and science, KSU said an increase in stipends alone was not enough to attract students to such fields. More "immediate" and "serious" action had to be taken to entice students from an early age.

KSU also suggested that the industry collaborate with the University by highlighting niches for research that could then be carried out by students while working on their theses or to garner experience.

"Research at the University could be an academic and financial goldmine, which can generate revenue to pursue further investment," the report said.

It emphasised the need to start a quality educational experience from a young age by creating a mobility-orientated culture and allowing secondary school students to attend some lectures at the University to familiarise themselves with the road ahead.

These students should also be taught soft skills from an early age so that when they attended University they could master other things like innovation and creativity skills, entrepreneurship skills and critical thinking skills.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com