Upon being criticised by the Minister for Finance Clyde Caruana that the University of Malta doesn’t make any money, its academics released a press statement that reads like an explanation by someone who is financially illiterate.
The value added is technically 0 (or -€125 million short) because the funding is external (public funding) so this should be considered as an external variable and not a sum. In this case the university is €125 million short. What these academics are saying is that students should have the right to have their education subsidised irrespective the university they go to. This means that students should very have their tuition fees paid by the government even if they study at a foreign university because that is still value added.
I agree with this kind of thinking because the University of Malta is well known for being an immovable block of mediocrity and lack of productivity. Academics barely publish any research, and only the minority of them are very productive, so the last thing you expect them to understand is how to make money. Different political administrations kept compounding the mediocrity at the university with nepotism and political favoritism.
As usual, the Minister for Finance comments on important issues he has no power to address, as the University largely falls under the political influence of the Office of the Prime Minister. The University of Malta may pretend to have some semblance of autonomy, but in the end, it’s the government that chooses the Rector.
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