The past year has once again been a very eventful one for the newest faculty at the University of Malta, the Faculty if ICT. In this regard, one can note several events and activities of varying import all of which contribute towards the rich profile of the Faculty.
Among these events and activities, one can mention the launch of construction work on the new faculty building, the organisation of international conferences, the annual workshop in ICT, the achievement of various industry awards, the launch of the "Dean's Awards" tradition, the annual ICT Final Year Projects Exhibition, student competitions, joint-degree programmes, participation in EU framework projects, and the addition, to the University "corporate-standard" web-site, of an attractive and modern web-area dealing with faculty events.
The scope of the Faculty of ICT has always been, and remains, the production of high calibre ICT professionals and the fostering of research effort of local and global recognition and relevance. We feel that the achievement of these goals is dependent as much on our internal activities as on our external interactions.
With this philosophy in mind, and within the constraints of present day socio-economic realities, resource availability and unavoidable governance structures and procedures, we have strived to direct our attention and effort towards these two aspects of our professional endeavour.
The first (internal) aspect requires creating an appropriate and effective learning environment for our students and a comfortable, dignified and productive one for our faculty staff members, both academic and administrative. The second (external) aspect would call for the improvement of ties with other universities and educational establishments, as well as with local and foreign industrial partners. Global leaders in the ICT sector such as Microsoft, Oracle, Ericsson, and IBM have all been in close contact with the faculty and have in place, or are working out, specific patterns of collaboration. This second aspect would also necessitate the availability of adequate resources, both material and human, for the growth and setup of internal research groups capable of interacting with counterpart organisations in other establishments.
In the way of internal activities, the faculty is actively seeking ways of improving its teaching output by constantly monitoring what is currently being offered, listening to student and employer feedback, and observing the constantly changing local and global ICT landscape. This has led us to embark on a major restructuring exercise for of main degree programmes, and for our evening Masters in IT conversion course.
This drive has also spurred the faculty into a commitment to supply directed, actual and relevant evening courses at diploma level which we feel will prove very attractive to a wide spectrum of ICT, and other, personnel. Work in this direction has already begun and we hope to have offerings in place as soon as the necessary research and internal procedures are adequately completed.
It should be noted that the faculty has already established a direction towards inter-disciplinary courses in such areas as Human Language Science and Technology at post-graduate level, and in Innovation Creativity and Entrepreneurship at under-graduate level. In fact, this academic year will see the first graduates of the two-year Erasmus Mundus European Masters in Human Language Science and Technology.
The annual meeting will be hosted by the University and a special graduation ceremony is to be organised at the Old University in Valletta attended by students and staff from the six participating Universities in the programme. It is the faculty's firm belief that there is much value, hitherto largely untapped, to be gained from the studied and structured integration of ICT with other non-ICT disciplines.
This year has also seen the first edition of the Dean's Awards event that the faculty intends to establish as an annual tradition. This event is dedicated recognising and awarding the highest achieving students in all the years, but the final one, of study in both day and evening undergraduate courses. This first edition was a resounding success attended by some of the highest university officials, university and faculty staff, awardees and their parents. The event also attracted a number of private sponsors. While awarding the highest, the faculty holds all its achieving students in high esteem.
Dr Cachia is the dean of the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta.