While presenting their political manifestoes, aspiring governments have offered a vision of what the University will do in the next legislature, probably forgetting that, in accordance with the laws enacted in Parliament, the University is an autonomous self-regulating entity and not a government department.

The question is whether, instead of this type of promise, political parties can promise:

(i) that the University will remain autonomous, in fact and not only in theory;

(ii) that whoever is in government will give serious consideration to the problem of long-term funding of the University, so as to assure its future;

(iii) that whoever is in government will genuinely support the creation of a research career option, within the University;

(iv) that whoever is in government consults with the expertise that is present within our University, rather than always seek to commission studies from abroad, so that research work has a chance to be relevant, rather than merely a chance to be published, and also a chance to earn money for University;

(v) that whoever is in government will not exclude University departments and faculties from taking part in EU-funded tenders, wherein their specific expertise is required, as happens, for example, when University staff members are considered as public officers and this in stark contrast with what their legal status really is;

(vi) that the Government, or authorities answering to the Government, act in such a way as to differentiate between the projects proposed by the University seeking to expand its physical resources, as the country requires and wishes, and the projects proposed by any other speculative developer.