One way to approach the financial side of the system (‘Smarter ways to upgrade education’, Editorial, Times of Malta, August 8) might be to keep university education ‘free’ while learning, but then to recover the costs from students by instalments – starting immediately after graduation (or after dropping out).

That way, students might fully appreciate the value of learning. They would need to find jobs as something other than waiters.

They might demand a better grading and quality of education to be able to earn the sort of salaries needed to pay back the money.

And they might opt for degree courses that are most likely to be useful on the jobs market.

Such a system would (should) also relieve parents of the burden of funding their children’s university education. There might even be employers who would pay the instalments for new staff as part of a recruitment package.

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