Measuring the quality of University education

It was an exaggeration on the part of Studenti Demokratici Maltin (SDM) president Lauro Fava to say that the quality of our University education is under threat. While punctuality is desirable, and negligence and lack of organisation are not acceptable, it would be a pity if one were to be so naive as to measure the quality of tertiary education in terms of whether lecturers turn up to all their scheduled lectures on time.

Mr Fava was perhaps forgetting the University's raison d'être. The University is the cradle for intellectual development and the quality of its output is measured through its major products, namely its students, its research and its contribution to society's needs.

It should be measured by the quality of all the professionals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lawyers, physiotherapists, computer scientists and all other graduates from our University. Our graduates are finding no difficulty to compete with graduates from other universities even for jobs open to EU citizens.

Another measure that should influence judgment on the quality of our University should be its research output, which has definitely improved in recent years both in depth and breadth.

Students must learn to tolerate such divergences among academics, which must include a mixture of different abilities - not only orderly and organised managers but also researchers and different thinkers. The latter type necessarily include the traditional absent-minded professors who, however, are often practically geniuses. Many such professors have created a legacy of knowledge and innovation in their area.

Mr Fava may have been speaking tongue-in-cheek on the eve of an election when he mentioned that a main function of SDM's work is going to be channelling student complaints directly to the authorities. Ironically, such an action leans more to a leftist style of politics.

During election campaigns certain politicians start dealing more with trivialities than serious policy. The SDM would do better if it devoted its time to help develop students' intellect. Teaching is a vocation and there is hardly any lecturer who would teach at the University if it was not a vocation. Academics gain great personal satisfaction when they are truly given the opportunity to carry out research for academic purposes and to provide cultural and technological support to government services and society.

The collective agreement signed between the University academic staff and the government last December did not remove any threat to the quality of University education. Despite the agreement reached, lecturers still receive trivial compensation compared to what they could earn if they devoted their time to private work. The agreement only provided the minimum necessary for lecturers to make a decent living.

In an institution such as ours, which has expanded from under 1,000 to 10,000 students in a short span of time, professional management of the University is more relevant than ever before. An orderly and planned administration is essential for the University to be properly managed and achieve excellence both in teaching and research.

However, the essence of the University remains intellectual development. The University must develop the minds of tomorrow's intellectuals who are needed to lead the country. This means the primary function of academics is to act as models of intellect.