By attracting an American university to establish a campus in the south of Malta, the government is seeking to end what one high-ranking government source referred to yesterday as the University of Malta’s “monopoly” on tertiary education.
Speaking to this newspaper yesterday, sources at the Office of the Prime Minister close to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat stressed that through the prospective deal, the government’s intention is to create competition for the University of Malta, and to end the virtual monopoly the institution holds on the country’s university-level education sector.
Sources also confirmed yesterday that the investment represents a €115 million foreign direct investment and that the government will give stipends and scholarships to students attending the new university, which will be named the American University of Malta, and which will reportedly eventually host some 4,000 students.
The fact that stipends will be granted for students attending the new university, as well as the possibility of scholarships, will certainly place the new institution in direct competition with the University of Malta.
Moreover, this newspaper is reliably informed that the government will lease the land where the institute is to be built to Chicago’s DePaul University, which will take on the onus of building the university. The government is also currently in talks with the respected American educational institution on the granting of scholarships for Maltese students to attend the university.
As such, it is not only the new university’s prospective site in the environs of Marsascala that can be expected to prove controversial.
Last Sunday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat spoke of a major investment in Malta’s educational sector, “In May we will announce a massive new project for the country in the educational sector. We are in the final stages of talks to bring in this investment.”
He added that the investment would create jobs while opening up new opportunities for students and researchers. He did not, however, disclose the other party involved in the talks.
AD, government on university