On May 26, the Rector of the University of Malta organised a seminar on the subject of entrepreneurial finance for academics at the Aula Magna at Valletta to encourage academics to commercialise their products which, in an independent country like Malta, we all need to do, now the health of the economy depends on us.

In any university there was always a tendency for academics to think that one may follow any knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself. That is only possible when there is a large and efficient wealth-generating workforce operating to back the financial needs of academics and education in general.

In the era of the Knights and the British-run economy, we did so well living on the fruits of the British empire with the mentality of living off the raw material of the British dependences, but now all that is gone forever. It was written in the sand and the wind blew it over and away.

All education in Malta needs to be revised as to the nature of the mentality it produces in our highly competitive world. I always had the tendency to think that our education should have 60 per cent of it towards directly helping the economy or keeping our own family home in order and in good condition with our own talents, but education is a far cry from all that.

One hopes that Maltese educators realise that there is a need for a change in mentality and our students must be prepared to face facts and solve problems rather than discuss philosophical arguments in examination scripts.

It might take some time but all educators must realise that associated with stipends and free education, there is a cost to pay and the workforce has to earn it all eventually. It is not a far-fetched idea that academics and students think on new lines of giving a direct contribution to generating a better economy with their products. It is normally the high fliers that shoulder the economy and we must have special facilitators to encourage these students to build the courage to venture along new commercial lines, rather than to aim for certificates to hang on a wall.