I remember very clearly a sequence from a programme on Animal Planet. The documentary was about a savannah in Africa. The summer period is dry and desolate. Death is in the air. Torpor is the order of the day. Then the first rain falls and the savannah blooms. Grass spouts all over. Trees spring to attention. Water gushes from every nook. Animals are full of energy. The sequence, which in real life must take up a few days, is presented in a couple of minutes using fast action.

The transition is fantastic. The viewer is engulfed and feels energised.

I got a similar feeling last Monday, the first day of the academic year. I feel energised.

The Tal-Qroqq Campus is so quiet and seemingly dull during summer. You only meet the odd academic most in shorts and tee-shirts. The administrative staff is over here, but only working half days. The campus which looks moribund in the morning acts dead in the afternoon.

Things do happen.

During the last week of September a professional development course was held for a number of academics. It was facilitated by Prof John Portelli and his team from Toronto. I found out I was studying in Montreal during the same time John was undertaking his studies there, albeit in a different University. Unfortunately I discovered this only about four decades late. I have been teaching for an untold number of years but I found the training both useful and refreshing. I look forward to the January and June sessions.

During the summer the building programme was still in progress. It is a blessing that the Campus sometimes looks and feels like a permanent building site. The Rector during his opening speech apologised for any inconvenience that this may cause. He has nothing to apologise for. The vast expansion and building programme is a blessing not an inconvenience.

I enrolled at this University in October 1970 and have been here since then. There was just a short ten year hiatus between 1977 and 1987. It was partly due to studies overseas and partly due to Dom Mintoff’s grand plan for the University. During those years I was teaching at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Studies that the Church set up concurrently with the Faculty of Theology which was operating from Tal Virtu during its forced exile from Tal-Qroqq.

The tenure of Rector Juanito Camilleri has brought with it a period of great expansion. Two factors that made this possible were the availability of EU funds and the visions/dreams of the Rector. One of his strengths is his great ability to think outside of the box and propose innovative solutions to old problems.

During the opening speech he appropriately spoke of dreams and visions. He urged students to dream and then to make those dreams come true. As the Rector aptly said a University education is much more than following an academic discipline. It is about discovering oneself and realising one’s dreams. It is about challenging oneself and the status quo.

In the meantime, lectures are on, though not for first year students who have a familiarisation week. This is the time when the summer work done preparing old courses or new ones comes in use.

Now off for the first lecture.