The University should seek to recruit more international students who are willing to pay for admittance, newly-appointed Rector Alfred Vella said yesterday, as this would make the institution more financially sustainable.
Prof. Vella, who was installed as the University of Malta’s 81st rector yesterday, expressed his intention to put forward the idea of adopting a funding model similar to that by private providers, as would be the case with the American University of Malta. This was accredited as a university yesterday.
“The State would still be able to and, in my strong view, should still support through scholarships all those students who have the entry qualifications which UoM today requires: other students would be allowed to access our programmes but against a charge,” Prof. Vella told those at the installation ceremony.
This would require a change of mind-set for the university, he said, but it would also allow for competition for students from other European countries as well as those from the Middle East. “The income so generated could be added to that dedicated to funding the research effort. One cannot expect successful research to happen on the cheap: you require...
