Malta’s 400-year-old University will have a new rector on July 1 when Alfred Vella succeeds Juanito Camilleri. The University of Malta has made huge strides under Prof. Camilleri’s leadership. Still, as a recent independent external quality assurance audit conducted under the auspices of the National Commission for Further and Higher Education showed, more remains to be done.

This is something the incoming rector acknowledged in a wide-ranging interview he gave The Sunday Times of Malta. In the interview, he touched upon the vexed issues of the University’s budget and its independence, the future of student stipends and a comprehensive wish list which encompassed Prof. Vella’s ‘vision’ for the University under his rectorship.

The need for the University to safeguard its autonomy loomed large in the incoming rector’s thinking as, indeed, was also the case under all his recent predecessors. The University has always struggled to distance itself from the dead hand of government and the intrusive and polarising party politics of Malta. “The State has to realise that if it wants the University’s best outcome, it should give it its freedom to have its own views and mind,” he pleaded.

But, as he also rightly pointed out, the problem at the heart of its desire for independence is that the government controls the purse strings. The University cannot manage its own budget and assets. “The University should be able to leverage its assets,” he said. Instead, it is dependent on the government of the day’s largesse, subject to the vagaries of an annualised budget allocation system dependent on what the State can afford.

This prevents genuine forward planning and an inevitable inhibition on the vital areas of research and development, which are such an intrinsic part of any successful and well-functioning university. Prof. Vella’s vision focuses sharply on the need for more research students, the imminent establishment of a research services support director to free academics from the burden of red tape in tapping funds and greater improvements in the research experience of doctoral students.

The new rector is aware of this government’s drive for greater pluralism and ‘internationalisation’ of tertiary education in Malta. The University of Malta should not fear the greater competition that might follow. Indeed, it already leads the field in attracting many foreign students. Prof. Vella intends to discuss with the government how to attract more fee-paying international students through what he calls “smart ways” to attract foreigners and bring in much-needed funds.

But this will almost inevitably lead him into a political minefield where “stipends have been, and remain, a political football which has seen successive governments loath to do anything that could disturb the delicate equilibrium”. Prof. Vella thought that introducing specific requirements for entry to the University of Malta (such as a qualification in the Maltese language) as a way of excluding students from the EU – who, like Maltese students, do not pay fees – would lead to the number of fee-paying students increasing massively.

He recognises, however, that this would require delicate negotiations with the European Commission.

In his interview, the new rector demonstrated a refreshing realism about what is desirable compared with what is actually possible. As one would expect of a scientist, his own pragmatic approach – as well as the political constraints that inhibit any rector’s room for manoeuvre in Malta – came through clearly.

Every person who has the good of one of Malta’s most important institutions to heart wishes Prof. Vella well in his new mission.