Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The University's Mission

By Adrian Muscat

In the late eighties the university embarked on a re-structuring exercise that was to transform the University from a decaying teaching school to a proper university, an institution that will find its true meaning in providing human resources to develop and extend the local economy as well as to foster innovative ideas that mitigate our economic and social problems. This exercise consisted mainly of upgrading the academic staff qualifications to those expected at a University, investing in new academic staff as well as physical entities that were necessary to address the increase in the number of students that is considered necessary for our country’s much wanted progress.

During the first decade of this re-structuring phase a good number of young highly talented individuals who had jobs in industry joined the university as academics. These individuals were then very much aware that our country has to face formidable European and world-wide competition and joined the university precisely to contribute in transforming Malta’s industries to higher value added operations. We were offered support for further studies, which we got. Yet the business parks to foster spin-offs and research and timely merit-based promotions are still to be experienced. Furthermore, one cannot omit the inadequacies of the administration which until recently was never geared up to support the ‘bidu gdid’ for the university.

Unfortunately the following decade had to be a period of disillusionment and frustration. During this period some of us left for overseas jobs, others found part-time jobs in industry to make up for the short comings in our working conditions and others organized evening courses in various areas. The latter two are in fact a contribution to society, but the development of a critical mass in R&D, business parks and other ideas were left on the slow back burner. Nonetheless some of us persisted in this ideal, did get funding from the EU and other sources, including overseas private companies, did manage to publish, and the number of local PhD students did increase. All this against many obstacles, most of them unreasonable and unnecessary. Complimenting these initiatives we had companies visiting the university interested in setting up shop here, offering true ‘high tech’ jobs. Most were satisfied with the quality of the output, maybe not with the quantity. A handful did invest here, the others did not find enough graduates. Some who did set up eventually were forced to close down due to dwindling human resources, because the initial growth was not sustained. Similarly over the years we had other entities set up…MCST...EuroMediti…etc. In a way these kept the interest going…but the quantum leap is still yet to come.

So what is the reason that the original university re-structuring exercise was slowed down or not completed? Is Maltese society really committed to science and engineering? Why is it that in this country we do not make an effort to retain talent? We have a right to know whether the government is interested in higher value adding jobs or not. We should know whether the government sees university education as necessary or not in our economy. Policy makers should be clear and unambiguous on this issue. We are now in the EU, and many young talented individuals are seeking greener pastures overseas. Now our country is feeling the pinch. The problems we have in what we call our ‘Hi-tech’ industries are not simply the result of bad luck. Good luck helps for a year or two. For longer term and sustained benefits we need a strategic leap in our ‘Hi-tech’. We need higher level skills and we have to stop precious talent moving into operational management simply for a pay rise. Time is not on our side. Our society has to invest now.

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