Excellence and care attracts foreign students

The co-operation agreement signed last Monday between Fayez Al-Kandari, cultural counsellor at the Embassy of Kuwait in Paris and University rector Juanito Camilleri confirms the special relationship the University has with Kuwait's higher education institutions.

For the past eight years the University has been receiving students through the Kuwaiti Ministry of Higher Education's scholarship programme and the first Kuwaiti scholarship students should be graduating at the end of the current academic year.

Out of the 60 students currently studying at the University, 16 are reading for a degree in Medicine and Surgery, six are on the Dental Surgery degree course, 14 are following the one-year Medical Foundation Programme, and two students are following the Foundation Studies programme to prepare for entry in the Architecture and Civil Engineering degree.

A further 22 students are currently following English language courses at the University's International School of Languages. Upon successful completion of this course, they will enrol in the Foundation Studies course in October.

The five-year agreement provides for the allocation of 65 places annually for Kuwaiti students to follow degree programmes at the University where they are expected to read for degrees in Medicine, Dental Surgery, Pharmacy, Engineering and Computer Studies. The University's degrees in these areas are especially attractive to foreign students because they are highly reputable internationally.

If the Kuwaiti agreement is successful there may be similar interest from other countries such as India and China, which are very interested in acquiring a European tertiary education. While these countries may not be as rich as Kuwait they are developing rapidly, especially in health and technology-related areas.

Our University needs to compete for fee-paying foreign students with universities in the UK and the US. The standards our University students achieve, as verified by visiting academics, is considered to be above-average, even compared to students in leading universities overseas. The Kuwaiti students should enhance this record, not diminish it, but they need to be given special attention. It was therefore a welcome idea for the University to assign two senior academics to provide special care to the Kuwaiti students at our University as part of the extensive support structure that it has put in place to focus on international students' academic, social, welfare and administrative needs. The University is committed to helping these students integrate into its academic and social fabric.

At the same time it is important that such increased demand on the time of University staff does not impinge on their research output and the high level of education they give to all medical, dental, pharmacy and engineering students. It is also very important that the University not only retains the level of excellence it has achieved in these areas over the years but that no stone is left unturned to continue increasing these faculties' achievements. The ingredients for this excellence and the indications of success are already evident.

Several Maltese academics and clinicians, many of them sponsored by drug firm Les Laboratories Servier, last week presented studies and took active part in the conference that the Mediterranean Association of Diabetes held in Malta, which served as a showcase of our excellence in the field of medicine.

Also last week, the UK Royal Pharmaceutical Society pharmaceutical press announced it will be publishing a second edition of Pharmacy Department head Lilian Azzopardi's highly successful book MCQs in Pharmacy Practice, as well as the first edition of the book Lecture Notes in Pharmacy Practice, also edited by Prof. Azzopardi. These books find their way on to the shelves of many university libraries all over the world.

The Pharmacy Department is also collaborating with the Malta Pharmaceutical Association and the Malta Enterprise to organise an international pharmaceutical industry conference next year in Malta, which is expected to attract to our island key scientific people involved in the international pharmaceutical industry.

A new state-of-the-art building is being built on the University campus to house the new Faculty of Computer Studies.

The Faculty of Engineering has relations with both local industry and highly reputable academic institutions abroad in all areas of engineering ranging from research in aircraft performance and safety to industrial robotics.

Members of the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering have had articles published in international journals and have a special interest in various areas such as Baroque Studies. In addition, architects at the faculty have been responsible for designing and executing major modern architectural projects.

In the same way that Malta has been successful in generating education-related tourism through the teaching of English, so too can the University succeed if makes best use of its advantages, showcases its areas of excellence and gives its students individual attention.