Majority of dismissed AUM staff still listed on website; part-timers employed to replace them
Sources close to the American University of Malta (AUM) report that the majority of faculty members listed on the faculty page of the university’s website have been fired.
On 4 January (Thursday), several reports emerged from multiple sources that 12 faculty members at the AUM have been let go. This comes after reports that a round of faculty members were let go between September and October 2017.
AUM Provost John Ryder refused to comment on the firing of academic staff, but said that students, inclusive of a new in-take for the upcoming semester, will proceed with their studies as planned.
He also said that a mixture of fulltime and part-time lecturers are employed to lead the lectures and course-work.
Questions have therefore been raised as to whether students seeking to enrol in the AUM are to be well-informed of who will be in charge of providing them with the high standard of education that has been promised.
A set of questions have been sent to AUM by The Malta Independent to confirm that all members of faculty listed on its website as of 5 January are indeed employed with the school and have not been fired. No answers were forthcoming at the time of going to print however no objection was raised by the university amid reports across various local newsrooms that a number of faculty have abruptly been let go over the past few days.
Sources close to AUM say that the university is hiring part-timers or adjunct faculty to replace the freshly-sacked faculty, and are reportedly paying them some USD3,000 per lecture.
Previous reports had said that AUM fired many full-time lecturers because of a cash-flow problem stemming from the high salaries.
At the beginning of the first scholastic term, it was reported that just 23 students were enrolled rather than the 300 students the university was looking to recruit in its first year of operation.
Ryder, as well as Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat all said that they are not concerned about the low initial figures. Ryder did concede that projections for the first year were revised downwards with Ryder and Bartolo separately stating that it would be better for the university to start small and ensure a quality service over quantity.
The AUM project has received a high degree of public scrutiny because of the government’s decision to bring in Sadeen Group to build the AUM by taking up public virgin land at Zonqor Point, Marsascala in 2014.
After mounting pressure from the public and the Opposition, government decided to reduce the footprint of land taken up at Zonqor Point, and split the campus between there and Dock 1 in Cospicua.
For the first semester, AUM is partially using Dock 1 as the site is still under construction and not yet completed.
A partial certificate was granted by the Planning Authority to allow the AUM to operate in the finished quarters.
AUM contractual obligations: 4,000 students must be attracted by 2023
According to contractual obligations entered into by the American University of Malta (AUM) with the government, 4,000 students must be attracted by the fourth year from when the project has been completed.
Media reports about 23 students, then reduced to 15 by the end of the AUM’s first scholastic term left many questioning whether this low number is in breach of the university’s contractual obligations. Research undertaken by The Malta Independent showed however that AUM has some time before it must be attracting 1,000 annually and have 4,000 students enrolled.
The point of departure stems from the definition of the ‘Date of Completion’ of the project, with contractual obligations relating to the number of students needing to be enrolled from after the date of completion.
AUM was given a two-year time window by the government from when it signed the contract for the transfer of land in Cospicua and Marsascala to AUM.
The contract was signed on 11 March 2016.
The contract provides for an extra year “in the case of exceptional circumstances totally independent of, and extraneous to” the AUM’s “own actions or omissions” which prevent it from carrying out the project in the two year time-frame. Because of the length of time the National Commission for Further and Higher Education took to award the AUM its licence and accreditation, an extra year was awarded.
This time-frame takes us to 11 March 2019, the date which the AUM is contractually obligated to start attracting 1,000 students annually.
It is also bound to attracting roughly 4,000 students by the fourth year from the date of completion (11 March 2019), taking us to March 2023.
In addition, the contract states that Sadeen Group, the Jordanian company behind AUM, is to “generate direct employment in the region of three hundred new jobs”.
No time-frame was established here so it is presumed, albeit unclear, that the requirement for job numbers is expected to be met alongside the time-frames for the 4,000 student uptake requirement.
The AUM binds itself, through the deed, to invest €104 million to complete the project, which does not include the initial ground-rent payable to Government at €40,000 which gradually reaches roughly €1 million by the 30th year of operation.
It is bound to submit audited financial statements in a timely manner and has been granted confidentiality, via the contract, insofar as is permissible by Maltese law.