PN wants government to revisit AUM licensing agreement

The PN has called on government to revisit the licensing agreement it had reached with the American University of Malta after it was removed from the Jordanian government’s accreditation list.

A notice sent by the Jordanian Embassy to Malta, based in Tunis, says that “the Ministry of Higher Education and the Committee for Accrediting Academic Institutions Abroad have decided to revoke and drop the accreditation to the American University of Malta.”

The announcement said the institution “did not comply with the basic standards and education conditions.”

The American University of Malta’s operating licence was renewed in August by the educational authorities.  

The PN expressed concerns about the development, saying it had always doubted why the AUM was licensed in the first place.

“To date, this University does not have more than 200 students, even though it was supposed to have around 10,000 students,” the PN said. “The precarious situation of the AUM led to the institution licensed locally by the NCHFE announcing last July that Maltese students who choose to study at the AUM will not pay the entrance fees.”

The party said it awaits clarification from the authorities over the university’s legitimacy, and how one it is justifiable to let it operate under a licence granted by the Maltese government. Therefore, it is requesting that the granting of the licence to AUM be re-evaluated.

The American University of Malta

The much-vaunted AUM was announced by Joseph Muscat’s government in May 2015, with the intention of rehabilitating the dock area in Cospicua. 

It was officially established in September 2016 and welcomed its first batch of students in September 2017.

The agreement saw the Dock 1 campus transferred to AUM, where the university carried out extensive rehabilitation works. A large plot of land at Żonqor point was also part of the controversial agreement, subject to the project there being given the go ahead only after the Cospicua campus is full.

The Bormla campus, situated in the renovated Knights Building on Dock 1, started operating in September 2017 but the number of students AUM has managed to attract so far is still a far cry from its ultimate target of 4,000. AUM is contractually bound to complete its project by 2025 and reach the 4,000-student milestone by 2029.