With the effects of globalisation and an increasingly competitive international marketplace hitting home in Malta, the pressing need for a reinvention of the Maltese workforce from its roots in the low-end, high-volume operations in favour of knowledge economy and hi-tech functions, has spurred a similar need to train the workforce of tomorrow in the areas required by the new emerging economy.

With the issue coming to the fore over recent months and underscored by recent mass redundancies in the textiles sector, The Malta Independent met with the University of Malta’s Science Faculty Dean, Prof. Alfred Vella, to gather his thoughts on the perception of sciences and enrolment levels at the faculty.

The last three years, according to Prof. Vella, have seen what he describes as a steep increase in the number of student arrivals at the faculty. The development, he explains, is the result of two factors – one of the faculty’s own making, and another, more fortuitous – development.

The first is a ploy used by the faculty over the last few years of placing adverts in the papers three or four days prior to the university registration date, which, reminiscent of the Uncle Sam “I Want You” WWII US Army recruitment advertisements, urges students to take up sciences as the country needs them.

The second factor, which came more out of the blue, is the popularity of forensic science television programmes such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Forensic Detectives and several others.

“I have no doubt in my mind that such programming has made people aware that, with science, you can do something interesting. I say this with a certain degree of confidence because I receive a number of emails stating as much from would-be students interested in learning about forensic science,” Prof. Vella, himself a crime scene investigator and Malta’s only forensic arson investigator, explained.

“The UK has also had the same experience and they have, in fact, noted what they regard as a worrying drift away from departments of chemistry to departments of forensic science, where they exist. The problem is, as one commentator said not long ago, that the UK simply does not need more forensic chemists, but it does need chemists who could be put to use in all sorts of other areas.”

Another valuable means of raising interest in the sciences is through altering the perception and image of science among younger students at the lower secondary school level.

“Teachers have to help us to relay the message that science is not for the nerds,” Prof. Vella stressed. “Science is something within reach. Science is interesting and empowers the individual.

“Most of us here – the dean included – are of very ordinary intellectual stuff and people have to realise this. There was only one Newton in the whole of history, and only one Einstein. Yet, there are thousands, if not millions, of others whose combined effort made an Einstein and a Newton possible. So we need to get the message out there that science is for you, it’s not for the other kid who seems to know it all.”

Combating the white coat perception

The corridors of the University of Malta Chemistry Department are lined with a series of signs advocating that “Not all scientists wear white coats” – an adage Prof. Vella contends with wholeheartedly.

“If you look at graduate chemists some 15 years into their career, not all of them would have remained in the laboratory. Even when they start out by working in the lab, they tend to eventually move away from the laboratory bench and into administrative areas.

“In other words, these people, chemists and scientists from other disciplines, are well-equipped to take on managerial positions, not only in areas where their specific knowledge is important, but also in more general managerial positions.”

Mathematicians, for example, can be seen working in The City, making predictions as to how stocks will fare. Operations research, which looks at processes, is a science used in ordinary day-to-day manufacturing or enterprise management.

Operations researchers and statisticians, Prof. Vella explains, are in high demand and are often snapped up before they even finish their courses.

“There are banks and companies who want to utilise their services. But it is unfortunate that their employers may not be totally aware of what these students’ potential actually is. This is really a general problem and does not affect only statistics students, but many science and engineering students as well.”

He recalls a report by sociologist Godfrey Baldacchino, who carried out a tracer study on work in the economy, which found that engineers, for instance, were frequently found to be performing tasks that should strictly be the role of a technician.

“Because of their background and training, engineers could probably do a better, quicker job than a technician – so there is assimilated value – but they would not usually survive very long doing that, before they move on.”

On the issue of the “brain drain” the country is said to be suffering from, Prof. Vella contends that Malta’s advantageous free education system holds both the positive and the negative.

“In some disciplines, most notably in but not limited to medicine, brains have been draining away from the Islands for as long as I can remember,” he explains. “If you look at it from the point of view of having invested heavily in training and seeing no return on your investment, then it could be considered as a bit of a disadvantage.

“But if you look at it from the point of view that in Malta, part of the privilege of being a citizen is that you get an excellent education, which makes you a great citizen of the planet, so power to us. I would, however, like to see the better brains remain in the country.”

With a view to encouraging higher enrolment in the sciences and engineering, stipend levels were readjusted last year to offer an incentive for students to take up the sciences and other hi-tech degrees.

“Clearly, if you get a significantly higher stipend for doing science and engineering then that could be a plus factor,” Prof. Vella explains. “I hope people do not come to science for the wrong reasons simply for the money. But I don’t think that will be the case, since entry requirements tend to be a good filter for any but the more gifted. If, however, the more gifted come after the money, let them.

“We have absolutely no intention of lowering entry requirements and we fully intend to uphold the highest standards. Ministers meet in fora such as the Lisbon Meeting, where they agree to have “X” amount of students graduating from university and they clearly expect the country to live up to community – if not their own, expectations. It’s tempting to lower standards. But to anyone suggesting such a course of action, I would simply recommend a look at the recent Guardian education supplement and its findings on ‘A’ levels in the UK. ‘A’ levels were once seen as the gold standard of British education, but today in some subjects, where once an “A” was an “A”, lower and lower marks are being given the equivalent of an “A” grade.

“UK universities are worried enough about the state of affairs for them to start considering whether they should have their own entry requirements. In other words they are saying that ‘A’ levels might not be enough and that prospective students may also need to take the university’s own entrance exams.”

On the issue of working closely with the private sector to identify the skills needed by the marketplace, Prof. Vella has certain reservations.

“We are obviously sensitive to industry’s needs, but we are also conscious of the need to primarily educate people. I realise that this is fraught with problems when you start making philosophical arguments about the need to educate people and to train them to do something productive.

“I would, however, be contrary to any scheme whereby a first degree in, for lack of a better word, pure science had to be modified in order to give, for example, a first degree in food science or in forensic science for that matter. That is channelling someone’s mind at a relatively early age into a discipline that might make him or her more readily adaptable to some particular sector. But it leaves that student in the lurch if he or she wants to change career.

“If you give a broader-based education that does not address any particular industry or manufacturing concern, you have a product that is highly adaptable and which renders the student better equipped to take on the world.

“Having said that, we also have people ask us why we don’t teach human resources skills, for example. We could do classes in this, and other areas. But at the expense of what? So I would say ‘let us do the science, then you can teach them about the payroll, how to use Sage or whatever it is that they need to know to for that particular job’.”

There is, however, one area outside the sciences where Prof. Vella agrees time could be taken out of science studies to address appropriately.

“At the moment, there is a huge debate going on at the university about how we are going to improve the students’ level of proficiency in English. I am prepared to hive off some hours per week from my courses in order to have English taught.

“I don’t think we can solve the problem of English standards by simply saying that unless you have a certain level of English, we are not going to allow you in. Nor is that a way of dealing with the problem, as going to primary and secondary schools and telling the teachers to teach better English would simply be making it someone else’s problem.”

While student numbers at the science faculty have increased steadily over recent years, the faculty’s funding, however, has not kept the same pace. Adding to the state of affairs is the fact that while goods purchased by the faculty were once VAT-free, that is no longer the case and while nominal funding compares with that of 1998 and 2000, being hit with VAT effectively means that 18 per cent of the faculty’s funding is being clawed back.

“There has to be a commitment from ultimately the state and the industry which hankers after our graduates,” Prof. Vella explains. “In many countries, most of the funding for research comes from private industry. You might say that in larger countries, there are the big corporations and that what we have in Malta are SMEs, but even the largest among them don’t, as far as I know, give a single cent to the faculty. There have, however, been two instances in which companies have donated equipment they are no longer using.

“Despite this, industry expects the science courses to be as per their specifications and lo and behold if you don’t come up with what they like. The fact of the matter is that industry itself would profit, in the long run, from any funding it directs toward the faculty’s efforts.”

Lisbon Agenda

The Lisbon Agenda, which aims to see the EU usurp the US as the most competitive economic block by 2010, hinges largely on innovation, research and development and activities in the knowledge economy. The strategy depends heavily on the development of Europe’s human resources into a highly-educated workforce with special hi-tech skills to meet the needs of the knowledge economy.

On Malta’s prospects of reaching the Lisbon Agenda goals, Prof. Vella comments: “If you plot a graph of how numbers have increased in percentages and extrapolate into the future, we should be meeting the Lisbon Agenda. It is, of course, stupid to go that way because there is no reason why the graph should continue on its way upward, while there are all the reasons for it to flatten out.

“For example, numbers coming from the schools at the sixth form level are increasing and have been increasing regularly, but not the numbers of those coming into the sciences haven’t. Although globally the numbers at sixth form have increased, the percentage of students coming to the sciences has remained rather stable.

“In other words, a lot of those studying chemistry, for example, at sixth form will not opt for a degree in chemistry, but are opting for pharmacy or medicine for which a chemistry ‘A’ level is required.”

The joint honours degree

Science students at the University of Malta graduate with a joint honours degree, starting the degree with emphasis on two main areas of study, such as chemistry and physics, with subsidiaries in other, not necessarily science-related, subjects.

In the second to the fourth years of the degree, students adhere to the two main areas of study, while a lab or field based project is undertaken in the fourth year in only one of the two areas.

Students continue to read the second subject and at the end of the degree they are awarded honours in both the first and the second subjects.

“The big advantage of the joint honours is that first of all it is recognised internationally,” Prof. Vella explains. “Students go away with their first degree here and are accepted to join Masters and even Doctorate programmes abroad. A lot of students go to the UK, some, like myself, go to the US. In other words, having a second subject does not detract from the quality of your specialism. It’s not to say that there are no other universities that offer joint honours, but it’s the exception rather than the rule.”

As the joint honours system incorporates two subjects, it also allows for better flexibility, which, in Malta is an advantage given the relatively small size of the marketplace.

Pharmaceutical post graduate diploma

With Malta’s pharmaceutical sector currently mushrooming thanks to certain aspects of Maltese legislation being highly advantageous to the generics arm of the industry, the sector is booming. Despite this, however, there appears to be a lack of skilled workers for the sector. Some observers have in fact noted the incidence of pharmaceutical companies poaching skilled workers from each other.

Addressing the shortfall, a post graduate diploma programme for graduates in chemistry and pharmacy has been formulated and will begin to be offered in February.

The content, additional to a first degree, will be aimed at improving students’ backgrounds to a point where they become even more useful to the industry than they are today by becoming what is known as qualified persons – those in charge of signing off consignments of pharmaceuticals, which requires a special type of education.

Elsewhere in the sciences faculty, the statistics department, the biology department and the computer departments have also run customised courses for clients requiring their staff to be trained in certain specialised skills.