University Rector Juanito Camilleri yesterday urged students not to become “sheep that live in the constraints of a small island”.
In his farewell speech as head of the University of Malta, Prof. Camilleri called upon students to resist prejudice, intolerance and hatred, by broadening their horizons through thought. “Keep an open mind. Don’t become sheep that accept everything they are told without thinking for themselves,” he said.
Prof. Camilleri paid special mention to anti-migration sentiments on the island, saying students had an obligation to open their minds against this wave of “destructive change”.
This was especially important as the situation would likely only get worse.
“What we are witnessing in the Mediterranean now is merely an amuse-bouche – not even an appetizer – of what is in store,” he said, adding that climate change would be the next factor to push African migrants north.
Central Africa, he said, would become uninhabitable in the next 30 years; however, half of the world’s youth would be born in Africa. “We can expect massive migration northward and southward. The southern Mediterranean coast will become very densely populated,” he said.
It was, therefore, up to this generation to decide how to respond to the crisis.
“Will we still be known for our hospitality, tolerance and our Christian values? Or will these be replaced by xenophobia and myopia?” he asked the gathering of freshmen gathered in the university’s Sir Temi Zammit Hall.
More than 11,700 students will sit for lectures at the Msida campus this year, but they will soon have a new rector. Prof. Camilleri’s 10-year term will come to an end in April, when the university senate will elect the 81st rector.
Speaking to the Times of Malta after his speech, Prof. Camilleri said that, looking ahead, he hoped the university would finally become more autonomous.
“There is no choice. The university will not be sustainable for much longer under the current legal and financial structure,” he said.
Prof. Camilleri said the university needed to be “taken off the leash” by improving its funding and bolstering its legal independence.
“A proper university, with autonomy, is crucial to the democratic development and sustainable economic growth of the country,” Prof. Camilleri said.