Malta does not need to be second rate and a new university should not make money for export but, rather, should import quality students, coming here for academic reasons and not just for sand, sun and occasional study.

As its students will be fee-paying, such an institution will not be in competition with the University of Malta and would attract quality faculty, which will bring their research with them.

This will enable the cross-fertilisation of ideas, the interchange of faculty and also the retention in Malta of lecturers, researchers and students, who would otherwise go abroad.

In seeking a new university, Malta would do well to look to Europe, where the academic culture is compatible with Malta, mechanisms are in place for seamless transfer of academic credit between institutions and lines of communication are short.

If the new university is meant to attract high quality American students, as opposed to RTKs (rich, thick kids), then it will need to be a university with a strong name and a global reputation.

One such university is Warwick, which, recently, appointed the President of Malta as an honorary professor of politics and international studies.

Warwick already has a world-wide presence and, furthermore, “is intent on existing in many locations, doing research in many locations and on producing globally aware students”.

That Warwick is currently opening a new campus in California, to add to its overseas campuses in Australia, New York and elsewhere, indicates its confidence in tapping the American academic market. Maybe it is too much to hope that Warwick would come to Malta but it does provide food for thought.