The University of Malta's student council (KSU) said that it will consider taking legal action if no solution is found in the next seven weeks in the ongoing industrial dispute between the University of Malta, its academic staff, and the Ministry for Education on an updated collective agreement.
"Should no solution be found, KSU will be escalating its involvement, through acts legally available to it, all of which are being considered. This is so that it, alongside any affected students may place all possible pressure as appropriate," KSU said on its Facebook page.
These developments are arising quickly after the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (UMASA) declared on Wednesday that, with immediate effect, university staff are to accelerate industrial action as discussions for a new collective agreement seem to have reached an impasse. University staff have been boycotting "any administrative or management meetings, in person or online" since November 2025, though on Wednesday 28 January 2026, university staff were told to withhold exam and thesis/dissertation marks until further notice. Exams and theses/dissertations will be assessed and graded during this time, though students will remain in the dark on their results till these measures are lifted.
Currently, students at the University of Malta are in the middle of their Semester 1 examination period. Exams are scheduled till the end of the first week of this coming February, next week.
KSU stated that it shall be giving the parties involved "a very reasonable 7-week grace period" for a solution to be found. The students said that seven weeks approximately represents the time that students usually wait to receive their final marks for the semester.
In its bid to involve itself more directly in this dispute, KSU requested to have an in-person meeting between its representatives and the Ministry for Education, it said. This request was accepted and this meeting was held on Thursday morning.
During this meeting with Education Minister Clifton Grima, the student representatives expressed their concerns on the recently issued directives that may result in the delayed publishing of this semester's exam results. They also expressed concern on these discussions' slow progress.
KSU told Minister Grima that "any increase in salaries due to lecturers stemming from this collective agreement should ideally be covered by a proportional increase in Government funding, so as to not place further strain on limited University resources." The students advocated with the Minister and with UMASA for all possible efforts to be made and for their full focus to be directed towards this swift resolution of this dispute.
In this meeting, Minister Grima reportedly said that he has personally intervened in this process in an attempt to expedite discussions. He added that all parties are meeting today, where they will attempt to reach a mutually acceptable offer for the conditions and remuneration of UoM lecturers for the upcoming years.