Criteria regulating the licensing of tertiary institutions could be circumvented through a new law allowing entities to be granted university status if deemed “in the national interest”, the Nationalist Party warned.
“This may tarnish Malta’s excellent reputation in the tertiary sector as it will lower standards to the detriment of the University of Malta and other higher education institutions already established here,” PN leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday.
However, the Education Ministry later clarified that such a decision would be at the discretion of the National Commission for Further and Higher Education.
“The minister is not in any shape or form empowered to overrule this process,” the government said. It added the legislation would ultimately improve standards in higher and tertiary education.
Dr Busuttil expressed his concern in a consultation meeting with academic staff of the University of Malta in the wake of Legal Notice 150 published three weeks ago. The PN is insisting the law lowered standards regulating the licensing, accreditation and quality assurance in further and higher education.
This may tarnish Malta’s excellent reputation in the tertiary sector
The party also raised suspicion that the changes were only intended to make life easier for Jordanian investors interested to set up a university campus under the name of American University of Malta. The site earmarked for the campus outside a development zone at Żonqor Point in Marsascala has fuelled a barrage of criticism from environmentalists.
“On Sunday, we will go to Marsascala and ask people, NGOs and even Marlene Farrugia [a Labour MP opposing the site chosen] to join us and convey their message against this development on virgin land,” Dr Busuttil said at the end of the meeting.
The event will be organised instead of the weekly Sunday morning political activity usually held in PN clubs.
Shadow education minister Therese Comodini Cachia raised a number of questions, including on the level of academic expertise of the Jordanian investors and whether other campuses were in the pipeline.
She pointed out that the minimum number of Masters degree programmes to be eligible to set up a campus in Malta had been reduced from six to four whereas at doctorate level it was no longer necessary to provide courses in at least four different fields.
The academics present for this meeting declined to make any statements in the presence of the media. One of those present who later spoke with Times of Malta on condition of anonymity said lecturers were very uneasy to express their concerns in public as they feared a backlash.
Apart from being worried that Malta’s reputation was being put at risk, he said no foreign entity had the right to be called American University of Malta because it had no real connections with the island.
Marlene Farrugia makes Cabinet offer
Outspoken Labour MP Marlene Farrugia, whose opposition to the site chosen for the American University of Malta made headlines, yesterday offered herself to be part of Cabinet saying she would relish the environment portfolio.
Dr Farrugia made her offer in an opinion piece in The Malta Independent.
Asked for his reaction, the Prime Minister downplayed the issue saying such decision was his “sole prerogative”.