The University of Malta campus is to be extended in two projects worth €75 million, Rector Juanito Camilleri announced yesterday.
He described one of them as a “state-of-the-art sustainable living complex” to house the faculties of the built environment and education, institutes of sustainable energy and earth systems, as well as a school of visual art.
The other project was dubbed a “research incubator” for post-doctoral research across disciplines and for laboratories and centres ranging from engineering and entrepreneurship to creative thinking and the performing arts.
The first project would cost €36 million and the second €39 million. Construction is scheduled to start over the next two years, once EU funding is secured.
The University is also working on a master plan for the Msida campus involving other projects, Prof. Camilleri told first-year students at the official opening ceremony for the academic year.
He joked that the University still did not know where it would get the funding for all the projects but pointed out that it was in a similar situation when there were plans to build the IT Services Centre and IT Faculty building.
“Nor did we know when we started working on the specifications for the significant number of laboratories we have built over the past years but, somehow, we managed then, and I am sure we will all do everything we can to turn this vision into reality now,” he said.
In the long term, there are plans to build a university residence and community complex on recently purchased land adjacent to the main campus entrance.
This will provide student accommodation and other services and amenities.
“We are planning for a clinical and health sciences complex with extensive underground parking and public transport facilities on the site of the current main student car park, allowing the Medical School to move out of Mater Dei Hospital to increase bed capacity,” Prof. Camilleri said.
There is no shame in failure if one does one’s best. Learn, move on and grow
Plans were also drafted for a University Sports and Wellbeing Complex to bring “sport back to life on this campus”.
On another note, he urged the students to push themselves to discover their limits – even at the risk of failure: “There is no shame in failure if one does one’s best. Learn, move on and grow.”
Prof. Camilleri also pointed out that studying parrot-style or by simply memorising chunks of text was useless and cutting and pasting from other people’s work was just “self deceiving”.
Lecturers and academics were also given a gentle reminder that the examination of students should not be based on memory or repetition.
There was a word of warning to all as he highlighted that many foreigners studied at the University and the Senate had already made it very clear that any racist behaviour would not be tolerated.
There are 655 international students representing 80 countries at the University this year.
A total of 3,461 students started yesterday: 2,571 in undergraduate courses and 890 reading for postgraduate degrees.
The student population amounts to 11,226, of which 4,755 are men and 6,471 are women. They are enrolled on a total of 777 courses.
This year, 1,321 students started sixth form at Junior College, which falls under the University’s jurisdiction.
Later yesterday morning, Prof. Camilleri welcomed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on campus for a tour of the stands set up by various student organisations for Freshers’ Week.
Dr Muscat chatted with students, took a selfie with someone dressed as the mascot for the Psychology Students Association and listened as students gave him a rundown of a racing car they had built.
In a short address after the tour, Dr Muscat said the government wanted to ensure the university retained its autonomy but made a pitch for a plurality of tertiary level institutions.
He said the opening in Malta of private tuition facilities, including foreign universities, would serve to enrich the educational landscape and not compete with the national University.