Education Minister Responds To Backlash Over ‘Threat’ To University Of Malta
Education minister Evarist Bartolo struck a conciliatory tone this afternoon as he listened to University students’ concerns about plans to shift powers currently vested in the Rector to a board appointed by the Prime Minister.
“What we are talking about is still a consultation document, meaning there is room for improvement to ensure the final result is beneficial to the University of Malta,” Bartolo was quoted as saying by the Malta Independent. “The government had no intention of crushing the University with some kind of heavy hand.”
The shake-up to the University of Malta’s management was included in a consultation document last for a planned University of Malta Act. It was published in April – just before the election campaign. It proposes a new governing board tasked with approving the University’s plans and decisions, including its annual budget, academic plan and business plan.
The board will be chaired by the University Chancellor and will include between three to five members – all directly appointed by the Prime Minister. According to the document, this is being done “because the institution is publicly funded”.
However, KSU warned the proposal gives the Prime Minister too much power over the University, hence threatening its institutional autonomy. Instead, it proposed the Prime Minister should only be allowed to appoint two of the new governing board’s five members – with the Chancellor, the Rector and the Chief Operations Officer making up the remaining three members.
KSU President Robert Napier said Bartolo was very conducive to this proposal and did not even try to justify the government’s original plan.
“He told us he is very glad we took this document so seriously and said our proposals were concrete and made sense,” Napier told Lovin Malta. “It’s a step in the right direction, and we’ve now scheduled another meeting with him about it.”
Meanwhile, Bartolo has rescheduled a meeting with academics about the proposed act from this Friday to the 24th November.
Questions sent by Lovin Malta to Bartolo about this proposal remain unanswered at the time of writing.