Few international students have applied to take the courses that are to be offered by Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry in Gozo.
Although the deadline for applications for the courses starting in September closed at the end of last month, Barts decided to extend the time by another month in a bid to attract more candidates, sources close to the project said.
Contacted in London, a spokeswoman for Barts confirmed that the deadline for the Gozo-based courses had been extended.
However, no reason was given for the decision.
“The deadline is now May 1,” was the only reply.
Asked whether this was due to the small number of applications, the spokeswoman said: “Our motivation has always been to recruit the most talented group of students. Interest in the programme is strong, and we would like to give as many people as possible the opportunity to apply before selecting the first cohort.”
Students will pay €35,000 a year in tuition fees.
Gozo’s attractiveness to young students was always going to be the main problem
“The government has given red carpet treatment to Barts and is making all the necessary investment in the campus to make it work. Still, it seems that high-net-worth students are more interested in spending their money in more cosmopolitan European capitals rather than in Gozo,” one source said.
“Gozo’s attractiveness to young students was always going to be the main problem for such a project. The fact that Vitals Global Healthcare and the government have not delivered on time to build a new campus is not helping either,” they added.
The new Barts medical school, originally announced by the government in 2015, was to open its doors in September 2016 on a purpose-built campus on the Gozo General Hospital site.
Although according to a still unpublished deal with the government, the new €10 million school was to be constructed by Vitals Global Healthcare – which will run St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo General – works have been delayed and only started a few weeks ago. No deadline has been given yet on when the new campus will be ready.
In the meantime, in order not to miss the start of another academic year, the government decided to allocate a substantial part of the Gozo Sixth Form in Victoria to Barts so it can serve as a temporary premises from September. It will be refurbished by Malta Enterprise.
According to the original plans announced by Barts in 2015, the Gozo campus will offer a one-year foundation course and five-year bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery.
The school was to start with 60 students in the first year, rising to about 300 after the first five years. Meanwhile, the government continues to refuse to say how much the refurbishment works to be done to Barts in Victoria will cost and whether it will also finance Vitals’ building of the new campus.
The government insists the information is “confidential”.
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com