The relationship between University of Malta and the finance minister "has never been bad", Rector Alfred Vella told The Malta Independent.

The Finance Minister last year had some harsh words for the university. The Minister had said that the University of Malta needed to get its finances in order, and that "they should pull up their socks and roll up their sleeves and if need be generate income."

Asked in an interview how he would describe the relationship between the finance minister and the university today following those statements, Rector Vella said: "it has never been bad."

"The minister must have had his reasons for externalising what he said."

The rector said that the ministry and university have "armies of people working" who interact with each other. "There might have been some dissatisfaction relayed to the minister from his people and he felt it was necessary to make certain statements. I have never had any issue with the ministry and we continue to work closely, because we are working towards the same aim. Finance ministers everywhere are probably concerned about higher education. Looking at universities abroad, they are unfortunately all facing similar challenges. Needless to say there will be a number of them that will close, almost for sure, if things don't change drastically and dramatically in certain countries. It will not happen in Malta because there is no reason to close the university, and we cannot afford for it to close either."

"We work very well together," he said, going back to the relationship between the university and the ministry.

A 'third generation university'

Answering questions by this newsroom, Vella said that since he took over, the university has continued to grow and develop in the same direction that it had been under Juanito Camilleri's rectorship. "We wanted the University of Malta to become a 'modern university', meaning that while it fulfils its core mission of teaching and learning with a focus on quality, and taking into account international developments such as the Bologna Process, we would also improve the outcomes of the research the university was conducting."

"I feel that these areas have been enhanced, and continue to be improved to this day," he said.

He mentioned the concept of a "third generation university", which, aside from what he already mentioned, also assists students, where possible, with entrepreneurship. "Often times research that students and staff conduct lead to outcomes that can be converted to products which are of interest commercially, or even socially. Where these are of commercial interest, we have a knowledge-transfer office that was set up under the previous rectorate which assists with issues like getting a patent, writing contracts with interested parties, and also providing some funds for start-ups." He said that some of these start-ups show promise to become "extremely important ventures" going forward.

It was recently reported that the University of Malta's debt stands at around €23 million. Vella said that the issue was brought about due to collective agreements. "The salaries that were agreed were causing the issue that we started to face. Up until three years ago we did not have a single cent of debt. More recently, the Finance Ministry graciously provided what we call a letter of comfort to the university in relation to a good part of its debt," which, he said, was good news for the university's accountants. "Meetings to continue discussing the developments on that front continue," he said, in reference to the university's debt, noting that meetings include ones with the finance ministry.

Study commissioned

He said that the Council of the University, which is the governing board of the university, has agreed to commission a study on the financial sustainability of the university, "in order to bring in fresh eyes in terms of how we can improve our financial situation," he said.

"When we are talking about revenue, most universities get their funding through fees, which we cannot do except from third country international students. The number of international students is increasing and today nearly 25% of our students are international. We also need to cut costs, so we try not to have duplications for instance."

The percentage of government funding last year was roughly €100 million, while the university made around €23 million, he said.

Asked if this was the reason for the university removing a number of part-time lecturers, he said it was not a main one. Vella said that none of the part-time lecturers who were teaching core study units were removed. "Only those casual lecturers appointed to teach on study units which were electives had their contract stopped, where these study units were not attracting students. What's the point of having someone appointed to teach one student? Everybody seemed to believe that this was related to cutting costs, but the more important reason was to increase accountability. I had discovered that some deans of faculties were not even aware of who was being appointed to work as a casual lecturer. It was more about ensuring quality, it didn't do much to change university costs."

The university has other revenue streams also, he said. The university has companies that provide consultancy services to industry and the State, he said. "That brings money to the university. We also have a language school which makes money, and other economic activities via our commercial arm, the Malta University Holding company. We also have, although it used to be more, money coming from residents. Now that Campus Hub is here, there is an arrangement with the university, and it is on this basis that the university allowed Campus Hub to be built on its land, and this is another revenue stream."

Research has gone from strength to strength

Asked whether the financial situation has affected research spending, he said that research has gone from strength to strength.

He added that a few years ago, the Finance Ministry decided to allot a sum of money for research by the University of Malta, albeit a small sum. The bulk of the money for research comes from European sources, or Xjenza Malta, "and those funds have increased from year to year. But even the small sum which has a Budget line for it had (last year) increased from €1.2 million to €1.6 million."

Asked about his hopes for this year's budget, he said: "I would like to see that the funds allocated to the university will at least cover the payroll, because payroll accounts for the lions share of the budget. I cannot have a situation where the ministry would agree to a collective agreement that goes would cost an amount, yet the university would receive less than that."

Asked about dialogue with the private sector to address skill gaps in the market, he said that the university holds regular meetings with representatives of the different economic sectors, and also social operators. "We recently held meetings with healthcare providers and fintech operators for instance. We ask them to tell us whether they want us to do anything differently. We encourage them - and several people have taken up the offer - to sit on our boards of study, so that our programmes would remain close and relevant to today's world."

"Our graduates are all working a few months after they graduate, while a few are working even before they graduate, so we do not have an unemployment issue here. Some may argue that perhaps our graduates are underemployed. Underemployment could be a challenge, and not just for us. My concern is more that of causing inflationary pressures because our young graduates might anticipate or demand salaries that are too good for their entry point. I suspect some of that is happening in certain areas."

Plans for the university sports complex adjacent to the National swimming pool were brought up during the interview. The complex will also include a performing arts section. "The plan is to have a new building above ground, replacing the old building on the sports site, that will host the school of performing arts as well as the institute for physical education. The project also includes a football pitch with a running track, and a car park underneath. We need the funds for this project, and we have needed the funds for it since 2017, which is when we provided the first plan."

The rector stressed that the project "needs to happen, because at the moment we are probably the only European university without a decent sports facility." He said that the university is surrounded by schools around the country that have "tremendously good sporting facilities. But the university of Malta doesn't, and that needs to be corrected. It will happen."

While the university had previously confirmed that the project would take seven years to complete from the start date, he would not reveal any details as to when the expected completion date of the sports facilities would be, saying that "it is still a matter under discussion and consideration."

Asked what the most popular fields of study at the university are, he said that law and medicine remain the courses that many students aspire to, but also mentioned commercial subjects like accountancy. "We have a large number of students in social wellbeing also, and the need for people to work in the social wellbeing and accountancy sectors outstrip the number of graduates."

Talking about the Faculty of Arts, he said many people discount it. "The Faculty of Arts, which is one of the larger faculties, has practically all of their graduates in employment very shortly after graduation, as their skills are easily transferable to a plethora of work situations, such as in film and journalism. I would argue that the Faculty of Arts, together with the Faculty of Science, define a university. Without these two, we might as well have vocational colleges for medicine, for the teaching profession etc. What makes a university, a university, is having these faculties that are not servicing a profession, but are really servicing individuals."

The rector also mentioned the university's rankings released this year, where, in January 2025, the University of Malta was ranked 829th in the world in the Ranking Web (Webometrics), which places it within the top 2.59% of over 32,000 higher education institutions worldwide.

He was asked about student population numbers. While the country's population has been rising, the university's undergraduate population has not been that affected, he said.

"There is the demographic slump. We Maltese are not having enough babies, and it is showing in our schools and programmes. The undergraduate programmes which attract mostly from the local population has stabilised and even shows signs of a decline. On the other hand, the postgraduate programme numbers keep on rising, and the reason is due to the fact that we have so many post-graduate students coming from abroad, so the numbers are not controlled by the local demography."

He predicts that the people coming to live in Malta from abroad will eventually have children of university age, "but for now they are young. So probably in the next five or ten years there will be an upsurge again in undergraduate numbers, together with the postgraduate numbers which I hope will continue to rise going forward."

Vella who was appointed university rector in 2016, is approaching the end of his final term as rector. The election of the new Rector will be held in March 2026 and the new Rector will take office on 1 July, 2026 for a five year term.