The Malta Independent on Sunday
PD calls for the return of both Żonqor and Dock 1 campuses to the public
● Party says AUM’s licence should be revoked
Partit Demokratiku yesterday called for the return to the public of both Zonqor Point and the Dock 1 campus being used by the American University of Malta (AUM), saying: “While the Partit Demokratiku wants to see the return of Zonqor to the general public, the Dock 1 building should also be returned and put to the service of public good and the residents of the Three Cities.”
The party also called on the National Commission for Higher Education (NCFHE) to “revoke the tertiary education licence granted to the AUM in the light of the recent developments, its staff being fired and inadequate student numbers to satisfy curricula”.
The reason, according to PD, is that: “It is difficult to envisage that AUM will ever provide five Bachelor’s Degree courses, a Master’s Degree course and four PhD courses, let alone increase our economic growth by €85 million.
“Malta has a reputation to safeguard, if higher education is to thrive as one of its platforms of economic growth. Surely, this is not the way forward to have pluralism in out tertiary education.”
PD labelled the AUM as “nothing more than a failed business venture, despite it being given special concessions by direct order. Let us call a spade a spade.
“This government needs to readdress our prestigious educational sector as its electoral manifesto promise has not been upheld.
“It is evident that the government has embarked on projects that have offered little to the Maltese population and have instead enriched a select few – and in the light of this habit, the Partit Demokratiku calls for independent feasibility studies to become part of standard procedure, as part of a greater strategy to empower the country’s institutions.”