As students in both Malta and the United Kingdom have been uncharacteristically rowdy, the former due to the yearly graduation celebrations and the latter due to record escalation in university fees, University of Malta rector Juanito Camilleri has stated that a system of fees for the university could “be crucial for the institution to be able to grow”
The full 87 page vision document that explains the statement is found here. Like the good student I once was, I did not read it all, not because it’s too long, which it is, but because it reads drably and I couldn’t stand the pun at the beginning.
Seriously, ouch!
So I read the Maltese version of the Cliff Notes
Something for English majors: "All that glitters is not gold"
These are my 5 reasons why you should pay for University:
1: Making people pay will get people’s attention.
I’m not saying that I agree with students being in debt for 10 years after they graduate, as happens in the UK. That’s shameful and not quite right. But I do agree that a student should want to study and excel at what they are doing, partly because they (or their parents, but that’s another argument) have an invested interest in their studies, literally.
And by the way, just because many of us don’t pay to go to school doesn’t mean it’s free, taxes were paid through the nose to fund your learning or lack thereof. The exact same applies to tertiary education.
2: It would make students work.
And by work I mean, work, not piss around in the canteen and insist that being a student is a job. Barring few courses, it isn’t and I know what I’m talking about, because I held two jobs down during my days as a student. There’s nothing dishonourable about waiting tables or working in a book shop, and if anything, it will teach you a bit of work ethic before you finish University at 25, an educated oaf with no work hours under your belt.
3: University needs money.
Of course it does, the Government pumps millions into it every year, and it’s seldom enough, as has been said often. I’m certain a lot of progress in University is hampered precisely because it is underfunded. Would you rather pay a few thousand euro and be certain that you are studying in a well funded, academically strong University, or will just about anything do for you?
By paying for education, students automatically help make the University able to adapt to current needs, ultimately creating better courses. The industry will then be more interested in helping employees further their knowledge and transfer that to the business or creative world.
4: Pricing can include incentives.
Yes it can. So we can predict the need of internet marketers and web developers in the coming ten years? The courses that prepare you for a job in those areas can be cheaper than other, more superfluous ones. If all degrees are free there can be no such incentive.
If this country doesn’t really require nail technicians with a Communications degree, we should just say it. If you want a sure fire job, learn a trade, become a builder, you’ll earn triple what I do in half of the time. If you want to study in areas for which there are no jobs here, do so at your behest. If you’re bright, you’ll succeed anyway. After all, Harvard alumni say “inventing a job is better than finding a job“.
5: Separate the wheat from the chaff.
You put a 5000 Euro price tag on a degree, and tell me if that degree is not automatically worth more in a couple of years. By worth more I mean, less people took it, because only the truly interested did, and they worked hard, because they paid. This has nothing to do with class issues, if anything, I met Sliema and Swieqi born and bred students who turned out to be the most arrogant, idiotic and ill informed of alumni. Going to university should be because you want to learn and study further, not just because you have the qualifications or class credentials.
I’m pretty certain that most of you, especially students, will have something to say about this. Feel free to express your rage in the comments. As Dr Marilyn Clark taught me in Psychology of Adjustment, pent up feelings can lead to feelings of worthlessness, and I don’t want that now, do I?
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Jean
I agree with some form of payment to the university but there are courses (such as music studies) that would not be worth paying for. If I am to pay 5000 euros I would rather spend them at an established university or conservatory and get a degree that is actually recognized by everyone and not at the UoM whose degree is almost worthless :/
Karl Agius
Can only agree partially. Put up the fees, and your student population will be based on who can pay, rather than who wants to learn. Way I see it, the problem people still want a degree, but do not want to work or study for it.
Stipends can probably afford to go down -- it’s not meant to be an alternative to a career -- but the whole institution itself can afford to lose some fat and make use of its resources. I do mean make use, rather than make better use -- consider the theses and research, much of which is employed as dust gathering apparatus and could instead be marketed. It’s a University, not a school.
Bianca Caruana
I agree completely with you Mark. There should also be a system for those students who can’t afford it though with background checks and possibly delay the amount to be paid until after finishing the course like in the UK (before all the hullabaloo).
To Jean -- In order for courses to be worth something, funding is required to improve the service. That’s the whole point in investment!
My only concern is that after being a student at the UoM (and wanting to go back again for more) and experiencing the “wonderful student service” will it really improve with the students paying or will more ACs and topnotch computers be put in lecturers’ offices whilst leaving students to run around after one projector for a lesson?
Anonymous
The ‘free’ university model + stipend works fine in Finland. Agreed, there needs to be improvement in terms of quality of service, student attitude etc. in Malta but building the argument on how many jobs one should hold is highly subjective. There are many students that engage in unpaid activities while in University (I was one of them) and these are the social kind of enterprises we should push for to develop an interpersonal skills base before leaving university (whether they’re paid or not against a stipend). There is surely a far more creative way of tackling this and providing real incentives than simply coming up with a system of tuition fees that’s faltering elsewhere, with universities run like businesses and stressed out students, exam cram teaching etc. I would hate to see Malta going down the route of the UK where the achievers and hard workers, at the end of day still pay the most taxes to support those who remain uninterested in education and possess no value whatsoever of working for something. The latter comment is obviously not intended to people with a genuine need, where society has literally failed them. Exorbitant tuition fees will only perpetuate these inequalities not improve them by putting a price tag.
Wayne Flask
I don’t think putting a fee will get the segment of demotivated lazy lecturers to miss Parliament/private practice to come to lectures and do a decent job. Nor will it change the attitudes of most of the administrative staff.
I’m actually afraid it will contribute to chopping off many working class sods like yours truly off the enrolment list.
markbiwwa
@Wayne
You make University foot the bill for itself, or at least some of the activities, and you’ll see the ‘demotivated lazy lecturers’ start to get dropped. We can afford to keep them because we’re not paying them. Change that, the whole model changes.
As to chopping off the working classes, yes, I do feel that would happen. Being completely honest here, I’m in agreement with you, but, as I said, this is in no way my idea of a full fledged solution.
Jean
@Bianca -- In Malta it is not subject to funding, it is a matter of reputation and way of teaching. Reputation is easy enough to achieve although it needs time. As for the method of teaching, Music has the be learnt in a conservatory. In conservatories one usually finds Instruments that are necessary in teaching.Now some of these instruments cost as much as 20,000 euros apiece. My whole point is that the University needs direct funding from the government (fees or no fees).
Jean
Sorry my mistake It is both subject to funding and reputation
Karl Agius
Fees do not, however, make it foot the bill itself. Besides, without casting shadows on the ladies and gentlemen of the institution, but knowing full well that we humans are what we are, it is hardly inconceivable that the standards expected of the product change to optimize the income.
Kenneth
Re: Point 5
It’s not about social classes; it’s all about disposable income / cash horded away in a mattress someplace. And that’s why I don’t agree with tuition fees. Why should someone who’s not so lucky work their ass off in between compulsory reading and assignments, while the offspring of a well-off family practise their parallel parking in a brand new Mini Cooper? No, I’m not a communist, but let’s make it a level playing field and stick to meritocracy. Those who deserve to be in university will get there anyhow through merit alone if there are no or minimal tuition fees. The ones with more cash but less ability will pay their way through private tertiary education institutions anyway. This economic model works brilliantly for secondary and sixth form institution.
Jon
Why should i subsidies your need to go to university? people taking pointless courses after pointless courses to end up working in a betting company? If you have money or not, you should be granted a government loan. Not a grant, a loan. Which you pay back when you find a job. Like most other countries. They should remove the bloody stipends to. F-ing Mintoff.
Geert
I beg to differ, I for one reckon that education should be provided by the government (Scandinavia would probably be a good example). Charging huge fees is just plain stupid and may even result in a brain drain. I don’t think there is such a thing as a “pointless course” because any education or training is good, even if it is purely for personal growth.
Ivan
Allow me to speak as an MCAST student here. I attend ICT MCAST in Paola.
1) We pay for our courses.
2) Our stipend is shit compared to University courses in the same level and field.
3) Our “study room” (read: only room with freely available computers for students) is closed at random days because lectures need to take place there.
Personally, I’m not complaining about stipend or course fees. What I’m complaining is about the study room being closed. Think about it: as software student I NEED to rely on that resource to be available campus, otherwise I’d have to buy a laptop or work at home. No problem with that, except for the fact that even our low stipend is scrutinized. “Hey, you missed a lecture? Guess what? A part of your stipend has gone bye-bye
”
So University students, please keep in mind, you’re better off than MCAST students at least.
Chris
You’re an asshole!
I don’t have 5,000 Euros to pluck out of my ass to pay for education only a very small percentage of people like you can do this. So get fucked cunt and pay me the money so I can study and be just like you!
Karl Agius
@Chris -- don’t worry, primary school is still funded by the taxpayer.
Adrian
I agree with the points Mark is trying to get along ( actually the UOM rector’s ones as I also had a look at his document ). I happen to lecture at a British university ( whilst reading for my doctorate and trying to live in London ) and also had the opportunity to both supervise and lecture Maltese students whilst living in Malta . The motivation between the students I lectured in Malta and the ones I do in UK ) is extremely different . Some Maltese students take their studies for granted and I beleive it is partly due to the fact that they have “free” access to higher education.
Gregorio
I have to say that i agree with all the points you put out in the article. Although one small thing, the university has to make guaranteed efforts to actually make the courses much more recognised than they currently are. When they are much more recognised i would be very happy to pay. (although through all the other points mentioned, i still think it is right to pay, it would help out in reducing students in an over-crowded environment, increase opportunities and make students who don’t absolutely do anything, not attend at all)
Geert
Related to this post:
Geert
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/peter-thiel-were-in-a-bubble-and-its-not-the-internet-its-higher-education
Mark
Thanks for that link Geert! Excellent article, I’m just happy to see that people like Thiel also hold a similar opinion to mine. I must be keeping good company!
chris grillo
Cheers for suggesting that while you got through University for free, I, (as a person who lives with a chronic illness, and quite unable to literally ‘put my back in it’), might not be able to afford my daughters going to university because of an atrocious sum you plucked out of thin air. Quite thoughtful of you.
I agree with a lot of your discussions…… but this is sick. Let us be….
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Matthew Yeomans
I have to disagree with you.
I have a better idea. Why not privatize University and give students a study grant instead?
Sarah
I live in the UK, and am of typical university goers age, and can safely say that even if students in Malta have to pay to go to university, it will not stop students “pissing around in the canteen and insisting that being a student is a job’!
Krister
I agree with the principle: it’s a good idea to make access to universities more difficult, so that their output can become better and more appreciated.
However I would not do this through exorbitant fees, but rather through a very strict entrance exam which would allow only the most able third (or so) of the current student population to study.