The collective agreement, over which disputes arouse, forcing publication of thousands of results to be halted, has finally been signed today. The collective agreement for  the academic staff of the University of Malta and that of Junior College will apply until the year 2018.

The agreement, signed in the presence of education minister Evarist Bartolo, and minister for finance Edward Scicluna, revises the promotion criteria for academics, as well as employment conditions for assistant lecturers. A revised intellectual property policy aims to ensure that both the academics and the university itself benefit from the output generated by academics.

MUT president Kevin Bonello, expressed his disappointment about the manner in which The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) handled the situation. According to Mr Bonello, contrary to what the association stated, MAM do not have an absolute majority to dictate terms of the collective agreement.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said that publications of the academics salary packages should be published in due time.

Meanwhile, University Rector Professor Juanito Camilleri said, that despite the industrial actions which took place during the past few weeks, the majority of results were still published within the required framework. However, the collective agreement will ensure that lecturers hand in results in advance.