During a live interview organized by the Times of Malta with the Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, and under a sub-heading “A damning indictment of University” on the newspaper’s web report of the interview, the Minister is reported to have said “The University of Malta is not doing what it needs to do to get its finances in order. The ministry has been chasing them for years. They should pull up their socks and roll up their sleeves and generate income. I've had enough of this.”

 

UMASA points out that first and foremost, the University provides a tertiary education service to over 12,700 students, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels over a very wide range of subject areas that constantly evolves to respond to contemporary needs, and that has a conservative market value of over € 150 million per year, which funds would be generated directly if the University were reimbursed its due tuition fees. In Malta, the funding of tertiary education from tax-payers' money is a long-standing Government policy, which is underpinned by the country's commitment to investing in its people, and which UMASA fully supports. However, we would then expect the Minister to steer well clear of trying to damn the University for not generating enough income!

 

The University does in fact generate about € 25 million from fees paid by international non-EU students and from other revenue sources, however the remaining € 125 million or so must be considered as additional value-added provided by the University.

 

Secondly, the generation of high-quality research proposals and projects by the UM academic staff, as well as of extensive development proposals and projects led by other UM staff, bring in high levels of external funding (for example, about EUR 50M of research funds under management in 2023) from national and international sources. This external funding contributes to placing the University on the international research map; to the generation of employment of many research and administrative support officers; to the construction of new state-of-the-art buildings and laboratories (for example the new Engineering Research and Innovation Laboratories building inaugurated earlier this year, and the Sustainable Living Complex which is at an advanced stage of completion); and the equipping and furnishing of our buildings and laboratories.

 

In short, the Government contribution to the university should be viewed as a (currently only partial) reimbursement of the due tuition-related income of the University (needed to cover its recurrent and growth costs), and not as a handout to compensate for university “mismanagement”. The core mission and competences of the University are tertiary education and research, both of which are essential contributions to society, and the university punches well above its weight in both. While UM does already generate other funds through structures such as its Knowledge Transfer Office, and holdings such as its Language School, these can not and should not be expected to replace the huge amount of funds receivable for its core mission.

 

UMASA calls for more objective recognition of the value that the public University of Malta brings to Maltese society, and more constructive evaluation from Government.