Updated Friday 10am with CSN reaction
The Żonqor Point American University of Malta project is necessary for the revitalisation of the south of Malta, which has long been neglected, government MPs argued in Parliament on Thursday.
They were debating an Opposition motion tabled by Nationalist MP David Agius on the Żonqor land, transferred to Sadeen Education Investment Limited by means of a 2015 perpetual emphyteusis, to public ownership.
Read: Żonqor to share new university with Dock 1
he motion asserted that Sadeen were in breach of their contractual obligations. The educational facility, which had committed itself to having a student complement of 4,000, had only 15 students attending its courses, and was finding it hard to attract additional students.
It was clear from this that the Żonqor land was not at present required for educational purposes, and was being used solely for speculation.
Read: AUM should not build Żonqor campus yet – Education Minister
The project was described by government MPs as being necessary for the revitalisation of the south of Malta, which had long been neglected.
Parliamentary Secretary Chris Agius said that Cospicua was already beginning to feel positive effects, and that Marsascala the business community was asking when the Żonqor portion of the development would be going ahead.
Read: PN, PL in war of words amid attempts to reverse Żonqor land transfer to AUM
However, Opposition Leader Adrian Delia said that the motion was not being presented for partisan reasons, but for the sake of preserving Maltese land which was at risk. He condemned the government for selling 90,000 square meters of pristine ODZ land for the paltry price of €4.88/sqm.
Instead of issuing a call for those interested in developing educational projects on the islands, he said, the Ggovernment had given a Jordanian investor with no experience in the education sector the land upon which he wished to speculate after only very brief negotiations.
Read: AUM student numbers ‘secret and confidential’ AUM student numbers ‘secret and confidential’
As a result, nobody believed that the agreed upon concession was in the public interest.
Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said that the content of the motion and most of Dr Delia’s comments were mistaken.
Most of the milestones and conditions indicated in the agreement were to be fulfilled over a 10-year period following the signing of that agreement, and the contract explicitly ruled out non-educational use of the land.
Read: Sacking of AUM workers shows university does not need Żonqor land - PN
No operator would be allowed to operate without respecting strict standards, he said, or without guaranteeing proper accreditation to students. Higher education licenses were not for sale, and the National Commission for Higher and Further Education would not allow such licenses to be used for other purposes.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat called the motion “premature”, asserting that the Żonqor land would only be developed if that at Cospicua was used to full capacity.
He criticised the “racial overtones” of Dr Delia’s speech, and said that his government did not discriminate between investors based on their nationality.
Read: Labour council votes down motion to return Żonqor land
Although the project was still in its infancy, €20 million had already been invested in the restoration and embellishment of the American University’s Cospicua premises and he had been informed that the student complement had recently gone up to over 30 students.
Contrary to Dr Delia’s pronouncement that the government was giving Sadeen 90,000 sqm of ODZ land, this amount had been reduced to 31,000 sqm after negative feedback was received from the public, and the average rate at which the land was being transferred was €35/sqm, not the €4.88 claimed by the Opposition Leader. He compared this to the 73c/sqm for which the land at SmartCity had been transferred.
Read: NGOs push for Żonqor AUM campus plans to be scrapped
Like the University of Malta, where former Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil had recently started to lecture, the American University of Malta was a fully independent institution within which the government did not meddle.
Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo said that the “obvious difference” between SmartCity and Żonqor Point was that the land at SmartCity had already been committed to development.
Read: AUM cuts student projections by half
This point was echoed by his colleague Jason Azzopardi, who called the SmartCity site a “highly polluted industrial area”.
Mr Vassallo said that, not only had the project failed to meet the targets announced during the launch by the Prime Minister - including 1,000 students within the first year of operation - it had also failed to meet its own targets, which it was being forced to revise downwards.
Read: Environment ministry says government decision on Żonqor 'sensible'
Dr Azzopardi closed the debate for the Opposition pointing out that the contract did allow for the development of “ancillary facilities” such as restaurants and cafeterias, a provision which would allow for “Tigne-style” development.
He pointed out that the contract gave Sadeen berthing rights over the associated coastline and challenged the government to prove that €20 million had indeed been spent to renovate the Dock 1 building in Cospicua.
Government has 'moral duty' to turn it down - CSN
The Civil Society Network said it is determined to cooperate with all persons of goodwill to ensure that the land at Żonqor is transferred back to the Maltese and used for the common good.
The other part of the so-called “university” in Cospicua until now has been a catastrophic failure, with a grand total of 15 students, whereas the promised lucrative jobs to academics are crumbling, the CSN said in a statement.
In the network’s opinion, the government has a moral duty towards the Maltese to accept reality and ensure that the vast area of ODZ land at Żonqor is not sacrificed for what increasingly looks like a white elephant.
"It is academic criteria and sustainability that dictate the success of a university, and not panoramic sea views."