Kaizen is the Japanese expression for continuous improvement. Whatever we engage in on a personal basis, whether it is a sport, a hobby or work, there will always be room for continuous improvement.
It is equally applicable to organisations in general whether they are private or governmental. One such government institution is the University of Malta, an institution with an odd 400-year history.
Another academic year has rolled in with 3,400 fresher students joining on campus, bringing the total number of enrolled students to just over 11,000.
Thumbs up for the continuing number of courses that are evolving as new faculties are established. As I have always stressed and argued, our country can continue to be a success story if we invest further in training and education.
That, however, entails attracting the right amount of funding. Funding is necessary if we are to seriously move away from our University being a teaching institution into one of teaching and research.
Certain part-time members of staff lack the necessary pedagogical skills to make learning an enjoyable experience
However, beyond the perennial issue of funding, attracting the right talent to tutor is imperative.
Apart from the discrepancies that exist between one faculty and another in terms of full-time staff to students ratio it is also evident that certain faculties require more part-time staff than others.
The faculty I appertain to, for example, the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy, is considered to be the largest faculty with over 2,000 students enrolled within it. The faculty has grown in importance as our country continues to establish itself as a hub for financial services in the middle of the Mediterranean. Most courses run by it require a significant number of part-time staff to deliver lectures late afternoon. Not only does this hinder students’ time to study but it is also creating intellectual discrepancies as full-time members of staff continue to register for a PhD as required by their contracts of employment.
Gone are the days when classes at the University contained highly-selected students with the traditional lecture and where a tutorial seemed to work well.
The expansion of the tertiary sector experienced after the change in government in 1987 meant that classes became not only larger but quite diversified in terms of student ability, motivation and cultural background.
The latter diversification is now quite an important issue as the University, rightly so, continues to attract international students, not to mention the student exchanges that occur year-in year-out thanks to the Erasmus project initiated by the European Union.
Also, certain part-time members of staff lack the necessary pedagogical skills to make learning an enjoyable experience.
While acknowledging that not all of us are born to be orators, it is possible to train people. Yes, why not train the trainers?
I strongly believe that colleagues of mine from the department of education should be engaged in designing and running the necessary training for both existing as well as new members of academic staff. Such training should ensure the desired quality of teaching in our University.
So even though capital outlays are necessary to make available the necessary space to accommodate the continuing increased number of students, attention should be given to the quality of teaching.
Inviting students to participate in ex post assessments is good but what is more effective is ex ante action.
Funds should be directed also to organise adequate training courses for would-be lecturers. Neglecting further this necessity would be tantamount to doing a disservice to our students whom, from my point of view, I’ve always considered to be my employer.
Ivan Grixti lectures financial accounting at the University of Malta.