The government has high hopes and plans for higher education – especially where the University of Malta is concerned. At a recent press conference Education Minister Louis Galea announced that the government hopes to attract at least 5,000 foreign students by the end of 2015, while an extra Lm600,000 will be allocated over and above this year’s budget.

Furthermore, the minister said that the government wants to increase the number of students who continue post-secondary studies from 60 to 90 per cent by 2015.

However, simply increasing the number of students or allocating extra money is not enough. Unless these changes are implemented along with improving the infrastructure, and initiating a culture change in the mentality of those who run and work in the university, the situation will remain unchanged.

Unfortunately there is still a lot of red tape – especially when it comes to coordination between different departments – which creates a lot of unnecessary stress for students.

When trying to solve these problems, the usual answer students receive is “It’s not my problem – go to such-and-such a department to sort it out.”

First-year students are usually the ones who are worst affected by the present situation, as they are at a total loss as to how to deal with the situation. It is only as time goes by that they learn to put their foot down and get past all the bureaucracy to finally sort out their timetable or end-of-year clashes.

Student associations need to have a more pro-active role at the university. Throughout their university years, many students rarely approach the various associations to help them out with their problems and yet the role of these associations is supposed to be to make their life easier.

Dr Galea also said the government is considering setting up a university trust fund to encourage investment from the public and private sector that will eventually lead to specialisation in certain areas and more research and development.

This, in turn, will help post-graduate students find better jobs in the high-end sector of Malta’s industry.

The fund could also improve the quality of the science and technology labs at university – which cannot, at present, be exactly called state-of-the-art. Due to limited finances and – once again – red tape, a lot of equipment sorely needs updating and students cannot expect to produce their best in a limited environment.

The government also wants to set up a number of specialised centres of international standard to give Maltese students the opportunity to follow certain courses here instead of going abroad. The minister said that the government would be identifying the land and financial resources necessary for the university.

All well and good. However, it is important that the government does not focus only on building new structures and departments while ignoring the present problems, because all the money and energy invested will be in vain.

To conclude, the crux of the matter is a much needed culture and mentality change. To coin a phrase, throwing money at the problem will not solve it. As we have already mentioned, funds are sorely needed. But it is useless putting funds at the disposal of students or improving the infrastructure if the same out-dated and bad practices persist. The university is in need of a breath of fresh air. By combining funding, better infrastructure and new practices, students (which the government says are the future of the country) will be better prepared for the real world that awaits them after graduating.