Alex Muscat, Labour MP

I don’t need to defend the American University of Malta. Results at project completion will speak for themselves, and the private institution will show that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

More important now is to explain the raison d’etre for attracting this investment. The government’s decision was backed by economic and social impact assessments and is destined to be yet another success story.

Even though we have been aggressively attacked by the conservative establishment, our decisions over the past five years have reaped the fruit in making Malta the best performing country in the European Union. The creation of a new economic niche in tertiary education will be no exception.

I strongly challenge the false idea that AUM have failed to meet its targets or obligations.  Let us get basic facts straight. This largest ever foreign investment in the education sector was announced in 2015. The government listened to genuine environmental concerns that were raised, and carried out the first ever public consultation to select the site of a major project. With more than 620 submissions received, the government reduced the footprint to just over 30,000 square metres and split the campus between Cospicua and Marsascala.

The contract between the government and AUM was signed in March 2016 with the institution acquiring its first planning permits in August 2016 for restoration works at Dock 1. AUM was subject to rigorous due diligence through which academics of great experience analysed the quality of education while PricewaterhouseCoopers audited the funding. It came out with flying colours and was granted its accreditation by the National Commission for Higher Education in September 2016, being described as an institution which would continue to broaden Malta’s appeal as a location for the provision of international educational services.

AUM has what it takes to succeed

Within just one year, AUM started its operations. Through a soft launch, the university engaged high-calibre academic staff and welcomed its first students. The binding contract, easily accessible to all, is clear. AUM must complete the whole project by 2025 and ensure an admission of 4,000 students within the following four years, that is by 2029.

Therefore, when the Opposition claims breach of contract, and urges the government to kick the investors out, all it is saying is that AUM should be penalised for it has not today met targets it has to reach in 11 years’ time.

Does Adrian Delia sincerely think that the message he should be sending to investors is that the Maltese State does not respect signed contracts, even if being adhered to? Is this the way he aspires to attract investment in the eventuality of him being elected to lead our country?

The Opposition alleges the project will only be a development of apartments for speculation. On the contrary, the contract clearly dictates that the investment will be intrinsically tied to educational purposes. Delia simply wants to disrupt this ‘Jordanian’ investment, as he calls it, with racial undertones, just as Simon Busuttil wanted to get rid of Chinese investment in Enemalta and American investment in Crane Currency.

It’s important to strengthen Malta’s position as an international destination for education by attracting investments of reputation and prestige. Away from the Opposition’s partisan interests, facts show that tertiary education is a rapidly expanding market internationally. It is an economic niche this government promised to work on and will deliver. This is an investment for the south of Malta which will bring social and economic benefits, on a regional and national scale. This region, notwithstanding its economic potential, lacked attention and investment for too many years under consecutive Nationalist administrations.

AUM passed through a process of scrutiny which no other educational institution in Malta went through. We will continue to be vigilant with constant spot checks and audits. We are absolutely sure that AUM has what it takes to succeed.

Jason Azzopardi, Spokesman for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Green Initiatives

The AUM saga has failed the public in more ways than one. The project, hyped up by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat before it was launched over two years ago, has literally proven to be a white elephant. It took a lot of pomposity and rhetoric from the government to reassure everyone that a deal struck in one minute with a Jordanian construction contractor and giving up precious ODZ in the south of Malta was nothing but good news.

The Prime Minister insisted this was an investment in the area and announced AUM would attract 4,000 students to its courses – code for a flood of sudden cash to be spent on rentals, living leisure and whatever we can sell to undergraduates.

Sadeen Education Investment Limited went ahead with the project despite the resistance of residents, civil society and the Opposition. The government brushed all the concerns aside and told everyone to wait and see the result.

We waited and we saw: 25 students enrolled in the first year, even after cutting the original estimates down to 300. We also saw how four Bangladeshi students never turned up to class and went mysteriously missing. We saw, too, how over the Christmas recess the American University of Malta sent a terse e-mail to the academic staff informing them of immediate dismissal.

This is not a deal gone bad, it’s one made bad

The AUM has no lecturing staff, no students, no research – but it does have 30,000 metres square of picturesque ODZ land in Żonqor.

The Nationalist Party has never been in favour of the deal gifting such a precious parcel of land, particularly with a company with absolutely no track record in the education sector. The more time is going by, the more obvious it is looking that the American University of Malta is not a university at all.

A few weeks ago the Opposition presented a motion for Parliament to ask the government to retake the land from Sadeen Group, since the conditions of the agreement are not being honoured. PN leader Adrian Delia has questioned the intentions and benefits of the project. A number of environmental organisations and Marsascala residents have also spoken out against the project, hoping the government that listens will pay attention to their objections. Instead, when asked about the university, the Prime Minister replied that AUM is a brilliant university and that it is comparable to the University of Malta.

This situation has now gone beyond farcical. The government through the education minister says that works on the Żonqor campus will not commence until the Dock 1 campus in Cospicua reaches its intake thresholds. In the meantime, though, public land is held hostage by a company that may or may not successfully develop.

What fails to reassure people, too, is that the government seems to have become the spokesperson of Sadeen Group on matters related to AUM. The public is rightly confused and asks whose side our government is defending: the country’s or the contractor’s.

Ironically, it was Sadeen Group that set the targets for the university, not the government. And it was the company again that, later, decided to revise these targets and give itself some more leniencies.

Yet it stupendously missed the mark, disappointing the student body, the academic staff, the residents, and everyone else involved. Except the government, it would seem. There is no scope in this project: not economic; not social; not educational; and certainly not environmental.

This is not a deal gone bad, it’s one made bad. The Prime Minister has had multiple opportunities to give the land back to the people, on account of the consistent breach of contract. Until now, though, government is intent on letting Sadeen Group have its cake and eating too.

While the government closes its ears to the voices of those who are speaking up against the Żonqor campus, it is to those who today have no voice that we must give an answer to: future generations.

If you would like to put any questions to the two parties in Parliament send an e-mail marked clearly Question Time to editor@timesofmalta.com.

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