11,000 Mcast graduates in five years – Gonzi

11,000 students have graduated from Mcast in the last five years, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi this morning, while visiting the college's campuses in Paola and Mosta.

Speaking in Paola, Gonzi lauded the "impressive transformation," at Mcast and announced that the first part of the new €120 million campus would be inaguarated in the coming weeks.

Mcast principal Stephen Cachia said that the college's main strength was that it provided opportunity to a wide range of students in different fields such as the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineering and the Institute of Community Services, visited by the Prime Minister today.

He said Mcast is celebrating the success of another 1,863 students who completed courses at Levels 1 to 4 during the last academic year.

"Students deserve all the support and encouragement they can get to overcome the challenges that this career path brings along. In this regard, our dedicated team of staff is always ready to support the students at all stages of their academic progress and personal development," Cachia said.

Later on in the afternoon, Gonzi visited the Institute of Art and Design in Mosta, where he was shown around the new state of the art multimedia TV studios.

The Mosta campus, which hosts 800 students, benefitted from a €2.3 million investment as part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

The facilities at the institute include the first fully equipped and functional HD TV studio in Malta, 25 editing suites, seven high-end editing suites, four HD cameras, a crane, a 270 degrees green screen for virtual productions, a digital storage facility and a fully equipped control room.

Gonzi said that although the creativity field in Malta was in its infancy, Mcast decided to invest heavily in facilities "of the highest quality."

Underpinning the importance of EU funding in education, Gonzi noted that a good part of the €1.1 billion funds obtained for the 2014-2020 period would be once again invested in education.

The Prime Minister explained that the facilities, which he dubbed as "the envy of all local television stations," was only possible thanks to the EU funds.

"EU funds are crucial to Mcast's success and a good chunk of the €1.1 billion EU funds will again be invested in the college," Gonzi said.

Gonzi announced that €10 million would be invested in research and development, in a scheme which will finance 25% of projects, on condition that researchers include Maltese nationals.

The institute's principle also invited the Prime Minister to officially launch its youtube channel, MediacastMT where students upload their audiovisual work. The channel already gets 8,000 visits per week.