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Matthew Vella
Minister of Education Louis Galea is adamant to make clear that the stipends issue is not just being freely dissected by every consultative body on the island.
The revelations of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development report appearing last week in MaltaToday however prompted justification from the Education Ministry on who the Minister will be heeding on proposed reform for educational funding.
The future structure of stipends and grants for post-secondary and tertiary students are currently being reviewed by the MCESD’s National Competitiveness Working Committee and Roderick Chalmers’s State Higher Education Working Group.
The terms of reference of the Chalmers committee are to examine and report on the financial situation concerning government-funded post-secondary and tertiary institutions in Malta and Gozo and recommend measures to secure their financial sustainability and efficacy, uncannily similar to the MCESD committee aims.
Following last week’s MaltaToday report on the MCESD’s National Competitiveness Working Committee’s proposals to have part of the stipend paid back following employment after graduation, Minister Louis Galea has claimed there is “nothing strange” with having both the MCESD and the Chalmers committee, reviewing the stipends issue.
The MCESD committee which drew up the report is chaired by economic Gordon Cordina. Present on the committee are MCESD Chairman Victor Scicluna, Alfred Demarco from the Central Bank of Malta, Vince Farrugia (GRTU), Tony Zarb (GWU), Adrian Bajada (FOI), Gejtu Vella (UHM) and Paul Zahra from the Ministry of Finance.
Louis Galea said the MCESD committee’s proposals on competitiveness also touched upon the issue of educational funding in the post-secondary and tertiary institutions as part of the overall picture of seeking national competitiveness, but said that this was not the case of the “right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, or that two different reports on the same subject are being drawn up.”
He said different opinions will help to shed more light on different solutions with regards to the state-funding of education.
A part-repayment of the stipend and a differentiation of payable stipends according to the courses best suited to the “country’s economic needs” are amongst the proposals drawn up by the MCESD, which has presented recommendations for serious reform in the financing of education.
The MCESD has stated that the stipends system may not be providing “the right incentives to study.” Taking inspiration from the Dutch model, where students aged 18 and over receive a basic state grant that they may supplement with a loan, or a means-tested supplementary grant for their undergraduate studies, the plans hark back to Labour’s 1997 measures.
At present, Maltese students receive a stipend of between Lm40 to Lm60 every month, with a total grant of Lm600 in the first year for the purchase of books and other educational equipment, and Lm200 thereafter for each year of university.
The MCESD proposals include having a portion of the stipend repaid by the graduate following commencement of work, subject to a moratorium based on study performance and income availability. The proposals have been forwarded to the State Higher Education Funding Working Group, which is also examining the financial situation of state post-secondary and tertiary institutions.
Student organisations and socio-political groups are closely following developments in the current consultation process being led by the Chalmers committee.
matthew@newsworksltd.com
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