More than 1,500 students signed a petition by the University Students' Council calling on the government and unions to proceed with negotiations over an industrial dispute involving the academic staff.

The issue concerns the new collective agreement for academic staff, who have rejected the offer tabled by the Education Ministry. As a result, the Malta Union of Teachers and the University of Malta Academic Staff Association instructed their members to withhold all non-final year undergraduate results both at University and at the Junior College.

The council said today that unless the industrial action was lifted and a solution was found by July 31, it would take "radical" action.

It said it will also be holding a student rally.

In a statement the Nationalist Party expressed its solidarity with students who it said always ended up victims of Labour governments.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.