In principle I have no major problems with the Non-American Non-University of Malta. I think of it much as I would of a monster shopping centre or hotel, that is to say, as a private business venture that has every right to try its luck at turning human beings into customers.

I do, however, take umbrage at two things in particular. First, at the shameless smoke and mirrors approach to the whole thing by government and its hirelings. The Non-American Non-University is not an investment in education, nor will it benefit the people of the south (whatever that means).

What it is is a land grab followed by an enclave. The first explains why the Prime Minister sugar-coated it with the promise of a ‘natural national park’ for families and their children and their dogs and whatnot. He needn’t have. We seem to have accepted that it’s alright for government to donate public land to private interests. It’s what will happen at White Rocks, among other places.

The second is an equally familiar type. Enclaves are a well-known and mushrooming phenomenon worldwide and especially in countries we used to describe as ‘Third World’ or ‘developing’. They take the form of gated communities, export processing zones, and such. The one thing they have in common is that they wave the finger at all times at whatever and whoever surrounds them.

The Non-American Non-University is not an investment in education, nor will it benefit the people of the south (whatever that means)

Which makes their posturing as bringers of great promise and benefit even more maddening. To do this they use a device known as ‘trickle-down’. Put simply it means that no matter how inward-looking and territorial the enclave, a good chunk of its privilege will eventually trickle down to the lesser mortals living around it.

That is exactly how government is selling us the Non-American Non-University. We’re told that Jordanian money and DePaul cleverness will trickle down to the people of Marsascala and the south.

Except it’s all a big lie. As it happens, enclaves tend to be very good at keeping their privilege to themselves. Suffice it to look at cities in which pockets of wealth stand barnacled in a sea of great squalor and poverty. Trickle-down is quite simply a myth. The people who peddle it, including Malta’s own master salesman, are rather like the Sheriff of Nottingham dressed in Lincoln green.

The second thing about the Non-American Non-University that really gets up my nose is not about it at all. Rather, it has to do with some of the things that are being said about the University of Malta.

The high priests tell us that the latest cunning plan will end that university’s monopoly on tertiary education in Malta. It will force it to compete and, inevitably, to raise its standards.

I was astonished last week to hear people who should know better repeat the words ‘monopoly’ and ‘competition’ as if they were the bleeding obvious. Ramona Frendo, for one, did her bit of myth-mongering on television last Monday. I expected better of her, given the unimpeachable pedigree of her university education.

There are a million reasons why the University of Malta, or any serious university for that matter, should not be thought of as an individual enterprise in competition with other universities.

A university cannot exist as a kind of fortress. Rather, its success will depend very much on the type and extent of its exchange within the vast network of knowledge that is the sum total of the world’s universities. If there is any competition, it’s of the kind that comes with the promiscuity of thought that all serious universities encourage.

Even assuming it will function as some kind of Oxbridge in the Mediterranean, the Marsascala do will not significantly change things for us at the University of Malta. That’s because we’re already rather well networked, thank you very much. We had actually heard of things like peer review and online library resources before Sadeen Education Investment Ltd came along.

If notions of competition are misguided, those of monopoly are the paragon of ignorance. The University of Malta cannot be described as a monopoly, simply because it does not act as a sole provider. On the contrary, it’s an enabler.

For example, I consider myself a typical and average member of the academic staff at University. A good part of my time is spent encouraging students to cast about and look at opportunities elsewhere. I write references for them to study abroad, use my professional contacts to get them placements, and so on. Only if University functioned as a monopoly, I’d do nothing of the sort.

I know the rector will not fire me for my misdeeds and disloyalty. That’s because our success as a university also depends on how well we prepare our students to become mo­bile and eligible internationally. The better we are at it, the more attractive our institution will be.

The reason why our degrees are so well-regarded is precisely because they enable this kind of openness. When I went to Cambridge in 1998 I found that my lecturers in Malta had done a phenomenal job setting the standard. A monopoly must have been the very last thing on their minds.

There’s another thing. The University of Malta happens to be very liberal-minded about entry requirements. We get students from all walks of life, some of who will have spent several years working on other things before deciding to go back to their books. Let’s call it a bazaar model of tertiary education. That’s my compliment to the people pushing that policy, but the point is that there’s nothing remotely elitist or protectionist about it.

Let other institutions set up shop if they will. But government shouldn’t be allowed to pass this off as a public investment in tertiary education. That would involve investing in the University of Malta to make it more of a bazaar based on exchange, openness, and a commitment to international standards.

mafalzon@hotmail.com

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