Hundreds of University students yesterday started signing a petition urging the government and their lecturers to stop using them as bargaining tools.

“I call upon you to stop the reluctance to move forward with negotiations.

“Students are not bargaining tools or chess pawns and their rights aren’t to be trampled on,” the students said in the petition.

The petition was addressed to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, the Malta Union of Teachers and the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (Umasa).

Students are not bargaining tools or chess pawns and their rights aren’t to be trampled on

The Kunsill Studenti Universitarji (KSU) launched the petition in the wake of industrial directives being followed by academic staff, who are not happy with the government’s proposals for their new collective agreement.

Umasa and the MUT have directed their members at the university and Junior College to withhold all non-final year undergraduate results and not to attend official meetings.

The KSU’s calls  to reach a solution and stop using students as bargaining tools  were falling on deaf ears.

In a statement, the KSU said: “It has constantly been communicated to all parties that students are missing out on opportunities, with the situation worsening with every day that passes.

“They nonetheless remain adamant in postponing talks, and procrastinating, without acting upon the volume of complaints we have being forwarded to them.”

The KSU insisted that, if a solution was not found by the end of the month, it would organise a student rally.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Malta Health Students Association said the University Research Ethics Committee was not issuing the ethical approvals for students who wanted to start working on their dissertations.

Students were worried they would not have enough time to complete the data collection for their dissertations.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party expressed solidarity towards the students who were being deprived of their exam results.

The PN said the Labour government managed to find €100 million to fund its Cabinet but was holding back from investing €8 million on lecturers who were the best educational tool students could have.