Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil told Parliament that Legal Notice 150 on higher education would devalue university accomplishments and put the title of university up for sale.
It threatened the national consensus on education that had so long been striven for.
The legal notice was about introducing radical changes without any consultation, he said. It would endanger the independence of public institutions, including the National Commission for Further and Higher Education, giving it a degree of discretion that would expose it to political pressure.
The regulations of 2012 were about the licensing of universities to a high level as the only way to prestige and international fame. Now the government was underhandedly seeking to lower standards.
It was now being considered enough for a bachelor’s or master’s degree course to have four programmes instead of six, and one course instead of four would be enough for a doctorate.
It would pave the way for destruction of academic reputation
The notice was removing the need for a university to have research training and research itself.
The Bologna Educational Process laid down that teaching and research were inseparable. The legal notice was “denaturing” the meaning of a university. Dr Busuttil said it was worrying that even if it did not attain these lower standards, an applicant could still be given the title of university “in the national interest”. This was, in reality, double mediocrity. It would pave the way for the destruction of academic reputation and the devaluation of certificates, besides going counter to established European criteria for education.
He said the government was sailing away from good governance, transparency and seriousness. This led one to think that the proposed American University of Malta would not have qualified under the existing rules.
The government must stop insulting the people’s intelligence with the fable of pluralism in higher education. Pluralism was already there, as were the possibilities of investments being made by foreign institutions of learning.
What the government was doing was threatening the independence of the national commission, after it had already hijacked most institutions. It was also threatening the academic reputation of Malta.
Did the call for applications for the posts of Head Quality Assurance and Head Accreditation on the NCHE mean that the incumbents had resigned due to political pressure?
Dr Busuttil said that, if the government withdrew the legal notice, the Opposition was ready to work with it. But if not, a Nationalist government would again raise standards to what they were right now.