University students may resort to staging protests in the middle of summer if there is no breakthrough in a dispute that has left thousands of them still waiting anxiously for exam results.
The warning was issued yesterday by the Kunsill Studenti Universitarji in the wake of industrial directives being followed by academic staff, who are not happy with the government’s proposals for their new collective agreement.
The University of Malta Academic Staff Association and the Malta Union of Teachers have directed their members at the university and Junior College to withhold all non-final year undergraduate results and not to attend official meetings.
The students’ council, KSU, lambasted the action and accused academic staff of treating students as “bargaining tools”.
If the deadlock persists, the KSU may even resort to protests
Addressing a news conference at the university campus, KSU president Gayle Lynn Callus said a survey carried out by student media organisation Insite found that some 6,000 students were still waiting for the annual exam results.
Through a questionnaire on its website, the KSU is gathering its own data about the number of students still to receive their results.
“If the deadlock persists, the KSU may even resort to protests,” Mr Callus warned.
The students’ body is seeking to be represented in any future talks regarding the collective agreement.
“While we would not involve ourselves in talks about the financial package of the academic staff, students have a right to voice their opinion on issues such as quality assurance standards and timeframes for the submission of exam results,” he said.
Though lecturers have up to the end of this month to submit results, the KSU president argued that it made no sense to withhold any results that were ready for publication.
Students interested in applying for Erasmus programmes or fourth year medicine students intending to follow the foundation course in the UK could be at risk of missing the deadline, he added. Contacted by Times of Malta, Umasa president Matthew Montebello said that early next week, probably Tuesday, all parties will hold a second meeting with the Director of Industrial Relations in a fresh attempt to break the deadlock.
Asked for his reaction to the remarks made by the KSU president, Prof. Montebello said he could not understand the argument in favour of having students’ representatives involved in talks on the collective agreement.
Regarding the delay in issuing the examination results, he pointed out that staff had been very careful not to disrupt Matsec results but argued that some consequences would be inevitable.
The Moviment Żgħażagħ Partit Nazzjonalista expressed its support for the KSU and urged all parties to reach an agreement.