These past two weeks a number of persons, most of them in their early 20s, were awarded the degrees they had striven so hard for. Many of them probably heaved a sigh of relief as they felt they had now finished their educ-ation after some 16 or 17 years. At the same time we witnessed through the media the protests in Italy and England against the respective governments. The Italian students were protesting against a reform that government wants to implement, while the English students were protesting against rises in university fees.

During this week, some inter- national newspapers also announced the results of the latest PISA (Programme for International Students’ Assessment) tests, which is a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils’ scholastic performance. It is coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development with a view to improving educ- ational policies. Essentially the test focuses on reading, mathematics and science.

Its value is that it assesses not only the extent to which the students have mastered the school curriculum, but also knowledge and skills needed in adult life. The results that were announced this week refer to the tests carried out last year. The results of this year’s tests, in which Malta took part, will be announced next year.

To my mind these events have a common feature – the link between tertiary education and the economy. This link is a very important feature of what bureaucrats refer to as the Lisbon Agenda, which is a European Union initiative, aimed at making the EU “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world cap-able of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”, which was then replaced by the so-called Europe 2020 Strategy. This initiative set five main targets with the objective of boosting growth and employment.

One of these objectives has a direct reference to education. It states that the share of early school-leavers is to be reduced to 10 per cent from the current 15 per cent, and the share of the population aged 30–34 having completed tertiary education is to be increased from 31 to at least 40 per cent.

Another objective has an indirect link with education. It states that countries should target to spend three per cent of their GDP in research and development, in particular by improving the conditions for R&D investment by the private sector, and develop a new indic-ator to track innovation.

The questions that we need to ask are several. I will just list a few.

Is our education system good enough for our students to perform well in the PISA tests I referred to earlier on? Is our tertiary education system contributing to reaching the three per cent expenditure target in research and development activities? Do we have the right mindset in this country to reduce the number of early school-leavers? Is our education system still too elitist in its approach, such that it is hindering persons’ access to further and tertiary education?

The answers to these questions should not just point to government policy on education, but also to the way key stakeholders think and act. Protecting one’s turf today may be doing a long-term disservice to our economy.

I will take just one example. I strongly believe that the setting up of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology has been the best thing that happened in education in the last 15 years in this country. The extension of the Mcast campus together with the provision of top-up degrees is probably the second-best thing. Employers will tell you that in certain areas Mcast students are of a better quality than graduates of the University of Malta.

Yet there are people, today, who are claiming that tertiary education should remain the exclusive domain of the University of Malta. Apart from the fact that this line of thinking is reminiscent of a conservative socialist mentality, that not even the Labour Party embraces, it is also indicative that some of us refuse to learn from the successes of other countries.

Cyprus set up its state university in the last 20 years. It does not even have a medical school, but it has no qualms about allowing the private sector to provide tertiary education programmes.

Germany provides two routes to tertiary education to its young citizens – the vocational route and the purely-academic route. The economies of Germany and Cyprus have benefited greatly from the policies they adopted in this field.

So why do we find it so difficult to allow pluralism in the provision of tertiary education? Twenty-three years ago we opened up our tertiary educational system by expanding our university. We now need to open it up further in two ways.

First, we need to allow other state institutions and private institutions to provide tertiary education programmes in their own right. Second, we need to provide more routes by which persons can attain their qualifications. Our economy needs it and our young citizens deserve it.