It’s bad enough that, every single year, our university spews out a ridiculous amount of students who can barely string two sentences together in whichever language.

Students who think that they can go from puking beer all over Republic Street one day (because hey, we’re graduates and no-one ever pulled such awesomeness before us) to occupying high-earning positions that entail actual responsibility the next.

Worse, students who think said positions are a god-given right, no matter how abysmal their academic record – or their track record in the working world, which I believe carries even more weight.

But do we actually need to have public figures encourage this state of affairs? This is exactly what Robert Musumeci is doing by advocating that entry requirements to university courses be ‘relaxed’.

Sure. Relax them some more and before you know it we will have pre-schoolers graduating sine cum lauda.

The reasoning behind his statement is not evil; he cites that it is everyone’s right to be given the opportunity to improve one’s mental capabilities. And he is perfectly correct, of course. However, the way he suggests that said mental capabilities are improved are the sure road to reducing the University of Malta to the equivalent of community college. And we can’t really afford that, not when we only have one university to speak of.

There are plenty of ways to encourage people who do not make the grade to further their education. Nowadays we are blessed with countless other learning institutions and with courses in everything under the sun. The opportunity to learn is there for those who want to take it. They don’t need to enrol into University to equip themselves with marketable skills or knowledge.

The only thing that relaxing University entry requirements achieves is the message that students nowadays don’t need to work too hard, because there will always be someone to hold their hand if they fail.

And sadly, we all know that this is not exactly how the real world works.