Education Minister Evarist Bartolo today told the University Students’ Council (KSU) that government has “no intention of crushing the university with some kind of heavy hand.”

The KSU presented Education Minister Evarist Bartolo with their thoughts regarding the controversial University of Malta Act.

Controversy surrounds the proposal to establish a Governing Board, members of which would be appointed by the Prime Minister. “The Rector is to attend meetings of the Board whenever he is invited to do so,” the proposal reads, meaning that he is not permanently on the board. “The members should not have any direct interest in the university, governmental ministries or be members of parliament, in order to allow the members to exercise proper and independent supervision”

The board’s functions are: “to ensure that that the Executive Board complies with legislation, rules and regulations and directives relating to the institution; to approvee plans and decisions taken by the Executive Board;  to consider and approve the university’s business plan, annual budget and academic plan; to ensures, using systems of internal and external audit, that the administration and management of the University proceed according to approved plans and budgets; and to act as an Appeals Body for any decision taken by the Council, including those on advice of its Committees, with respect to academic and administrative staff."

The KSU believes that the proposed role of this board should be changed. “The issue here is that the document speaks about autonomy, yet we cannot have a situation where the academic plan, and the budget is approved by a board made up of members only chosen by the Prime Minister.” They also highlighted that having an academic plan approved by people with no expertise in controlling academic institutions is a problem.

As such, they proposed that the governing board take on a more consultative role when it comes to the approval of plans. They also recommend that only two members of the Board be appointed by the Prime Minister, and that the other members should be made up of the rector, one member recommended by the Council, the Chancellor and the Chief Operations Officer.

Minister Bartolo, addressing the students, stressed that this is just a consultation document, and is looking forward to similar critical feedback and recommendations from academics and university staff. “It is a consultation paper, meaning there is the need to work on it, to improve it and to ensure that what is being done is a step forward for the university.”

Over the past four years, he said, government took steps to strengthen the university . We have no intention of crushing the university by some kind of heavy hand.”

He said that the University budget increased from €54 million to €76 million over the past few years. If one wants to hurt the university, the best way to do it would be through the budget, as if there Is no budget they cannot operate or function.” He said that the first correspondence he found in 2013 from the university was a request for €4 million to pay wages.

He mentioned that in the past, the appointment of rectors was done through a top-down decision, “and there were moments where the government of the day would manoeuvre so that a person chosen by government be chosen irrespective of the academic staff. We made clear that the rector will be elected after a democratic process.”

He mentioned that government continued to invest in the university, and worked on ensuring that the university has the necessary finances to complete campus works. He mentioned that the consultation document also proposes a three-year budget cycle for the university, allowing it to plan ahead. “Subject to the ministry of finance approval and that of Parliament, a proposal we have would allow university to raise finances and take out loans.” He mentioned the need for a strong internal audit mechanism for this.

Turning to the governance structure, the minister said that he is very interested in what the union is saying, and has pledged to meet them again to go into further detail. “You made some good points about the governing board, which I will discuss further with you. I think you made some excellent points which need to be reflected on.”

He stressed that the University of Malta is a public institution, mostly financed by the tax-payer. “When we speak about public accountability, we are not referring about making it accountable to government, but to the taxpayer.”

He stressed that without the university, many industries would not even be in Malta.