Employers call for university stipends review

Employers’ have warned government that Budget 2012 should send a ‘clear message’ that people should not raise expectations unrealistically as economic situation remains precarious.

19 October 2011, 12:00am
by Karl Stagno-Navarra

3 min read

In a five-page document with recommendations for Budget 2012, the Malta Employers’ Association (MEA) called for an audit to measure the effectiveness of the investment, and to "ensure that funds are being used efficiently and directed to areas where they are most effective in building careers," adding that the idea of grading courses according to their employment potential should be considered.

MEA said that government should "consider reviewing" the €20 million student maintenance grants to ensure its sustainability and find ways to increase incentives for students to follow courses that are more aligned with the future needs of the economy.

"The wisdom of opening B.Ed courses to all applicants is questionable," MEA said referring to the limited jobs available in teaching. The association said that openign such courses can only be acceptable if it is made clear to applicants that there is no guaranteed job if they follow that course. "Government cannot afford to become an employer of last resort," the association said.

While pointing out that the economy had shown resilience in the face of a hostile and volatile international situation, the MEA said people should not raise expectations unrealistically. It said that in spite of relatively low unemployment, GDP growth and an increase in exports and tourism, the situations remains precarious and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

MEA warned that many companies stretching their resources to afford the Cost Of Living Adjustment increases – among other cost increases – cannot face further cost pressures through collective agreements, and called on all social partners to “act responsibly” in such circumstances. "The country’s economic survival remains our flexibility as a small economy and competitiveness”.

MEA also proposed a revision in tax bands, and called for a tax elasticity exercise to determine the impact of a revision on income taxes to increase the disposable income of middle income earners.

“Pushing up the ceiling of the 35% band would increase aggregate demand. Even if it is argued that the multiplier effect resulting from increased consumer expenditure in Malta is low, the measure will also act as an incentive to increase the supply of labour, especially among young women, as the returns on labour will be higher and increase the opportunity cost of staying at home,” the employers said.

Other recommendations call for government to consider paying part of the maternity leave to relieve employers of this cost. Malta remains one of the few countries where maternity leave is paid at full pay by the employer. MEA is recommending enhancing family friendly measures to ensure a wider participation of women within the workforce, more incentives for private sector investment in childcare services and subsidies for affordable childcare services.

MEA also said an option was to extending school opening hours so that parents leave their children to be looked after longer at school, possibly at extra payment to teaching and school administrative staff to man these hours.

On Libya, MEA is calling for the setting up of an entrepreneurship fund to incentivise business in Libya. Government should also consider temporarily re-introducing the income tax incentives which were available to Maltese working in Libya.

The MEA also said there was a need to provide more electricity charging stations for electric cars and intensify their diffusion, with Gozo as an ideal test market.

MEA called on government to protect the interests of legitimate businesses by controlling parallel trading and also in tendering processes. “In spite of restrictions on tenders, many companies still complain of unfair competition in the awarding of tenders to others who are offering substandard conditions of employment - even in the public sector.” It is in the interest of both companies and employees that there should be a level playing field among potential applicants for tenders, MEA said.

On Air Malta, MEA appealed for the crisis to be resolved in the shortest time possible in order to bring the national carrier back to profitability as fast as possible.

More from Karl Stagno-Navarra

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Dear Liberal, if you prefer the life of a professional then yours then the solution to your problem is simple ie go to the university and get a degree. I can assure you that many professionals in Malta spend alot of money from their own pockets to assure that people like you get the best service. . Anyway the means test is ridiculous since anyone graduating (whether he comes from a rich family or not) will be paid the same. I have yet to meet 1 doctor/engineer/IT guy/teacher who is being paid less because he comes from a poor family. In few words if the government wants students to pay then he should introduce loans for everyone not just the 'rich' families who may or may not want to help their kids in their studies. . Finally Id rather see our government cut expenses on many other things rather then education whom, at the end of the day, is the future of our country (these are the guys who'll pay for our pensions and not the factory worker or the store keeper on minimum wage). Money spent on stupid projects, single mothers (tal 'unknown' father) and immigrants (other countries problems) can be better utilized on education and incentives to help people to actually become part of the workforce.

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Nobody has answered how the government can really save money as I wrote below. @ MOSD So what you are referring to is the so called Numerus Clausus. Am I right???

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From my point of view these stipends have to eventually go! Most major european universities do not have stipends and also charge students for attending! If in Malta there has to be a quality leap in education it is high time that the classic spoon feeding style of education is scrapped especially at an institution like a university. It is impertative that this stipend system is completely scrapped. A point to note is that the university in malta has become a mass production factory that is churning out many inferior quality degrees from the previous years. Degrees, titles and formal qualifications do not impress industry and being now so common will not necessarily serve to find desirable employment conditions !!!

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The way I see it is this , some students study for free ,get their stipends from our taxes then they graduate and the appreciation is they start charging exorbident fees for their proffesional services.Take take and take again! I can understand some families cannot afford to keep their children in university but at least some kind of means test for the usual rich opportunist bummers we have around should be introduced.One can take a look at the university car park and see all the cars these students can afford !! Alfred Sant was right again regarding the loan idea but in Malta everything is acceptable as long as it is not introduced by the LP so the government might give it a try as this time round many will most probably agree with this system. I am fed up paying for everybody especially for who can afford everything else.

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*more independent university (not newspaper) apologies for the typo

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@ Save Gozo- Whether you like it or not these comparisons are made and will continue to be made. The issue about taking loans is not really applicable in our case. We do not pay fees to go to University (something that should be appreciated) and with the exception of Gozo, students live at home. Apart from this there are scholarships available as well as social benefits for education if you happen to fall within that bracket. During my time at university most students spent their stipend on activities and 'materials' unrelated to university, and it is common to go out on the weekend, queue up to use the atm and hear 'viva l-istipendju'. Again talking of discipline, the best way is to remove the dependency associated with stipends FOR A START. Whether it is a coincidence or not that it resurface before the budget is irrelevant, and does not detract from the fact that it is a good idea to remove them. What would happen? Maybe we'd have fewer piss-takers at university lectures. Maybe we'd reduce the amount of dependency that students have on the stipend and prepare them for the real world where not everything is so comfortable. And possibly the focus of university might start leaning more towards the benefits of education that are not only focused on gaining a piece of paper (and at the end having learnt nothing). And on a separate note it would be great to see a more independent newspaper that is not governed by politicians and the theology society.

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@ mosd I hate the idea of Malta and Gozo always being compared to other countries. We are not the same as large countries. When students in other countries find a job after leaving university they usually have a very very good income and with it they can easily pay off the loan that they took for their studies. How do you know the majority of students spend their stipend on anything but resources related to university.I know of many families who are just making ends meet and the stipends their children get is surely needed for studying expenses. Is this going to be like the buses reform, the whole system was scrapped because of a very very few cowboys!! Instead of just disciplining them the whole lot was changed and we all know what the consequences were. I believe the same would happen if the stipends are removed. It will be a very big mistake. Is it a coincidence that this subject always comes up before the budget.

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@ - Save Gozo Although I agree that there should be some exceptions made in those cases where as you pointed out students coming from Gozo might be allowed a stipend based on the expense of commuting, you are being slightly dramatic. The vast majority of students spend their stipend on anything but resources related to university (including commuting). The reality is that in the rest of Europe students have to pay even more on commuting, fees and schooling materials. To be frank this dependency on the stipend mirrors the Maltese attitude towards lectures and education; the need to be spoon-fed and have material delivered to them on a plate. It's not easy, but it's not difficult either to cope without stipends and it might make students a bit more appreciative of the effort needed to receive an education. If you have to personally fork out some cash or engage extra effort then you will be more appreciative of what you are supposed to be gaining from that 's service. A quality which the majority of UOM students lack nowadays. This coming from someone who was until recently a student of UOM and not from a well off family by Maltese standards.

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@ all those always saying stipends should be removed. These people must either be rich people who can afford to pay expensive university fees or do not have students because they are completely out of touch. Especially those who say that the students have expensive cars. If some students have an expensive car they definitely did not pay for it with the amount of stipends they get. With the price of public transport going up most of the stipend covers the expense of that. What about the gozitan students do they not need stipends for their expenses? They pay at least a hundred euros a month on rent only, then they have elec/water bills, internet, gas, food etc etc. All i say is ask the parents of these students and see how much they can afford these extra bills. If the government wants to review something and cut expenses they should review he money that is being wasted like the exorbitant amount that was paid for consultation for the new bus routes, the fifty million that was spent for the old buses, the 90 million for city gate, bwsc, travel expenses of politicians and their sidekicks etc etc That is where the govt should cut on expenses, not always from the man in he street who is barely making ends meet

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The removal of stipends is a course of action which is long overdue. Stipends being used as an incentive for young people to go to university has the adverse effect of filling up lecture halls with disinterested students who's only interest is in going to enough lectures to ensure that they do not lose their stipend. Maybe it would also be wise to consider limiting the extent of government involvment in university. university is supposed to be a neutral zone where students can openly express new ideas and learn to be creative and uninhibited in their thinking. It should not be a zone for the cultivation of 'political' alliances and the injection of the party political rhetoric that has by far become overly redundant. Maybe then the university can be taken seriously as an institution.

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How pathethic, so now it is the students to blame for financial crisis! I think it is better that this university looks at its professors who are not even giving the equivalent of a normal worker's day worth of contribution to the economy and are getting an exaggerated wage increase. I think that the elections must be very close because lately the university has been employing unnecessary new staff at an exaggerated rate! The PL should take note of this!

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Article Extract "Other recommendations call for government to consider paying part of the maternity leave to relieve employers of this cost." . In my opinion this is a very abusive and politically incorrect thing to ask for. . Perhaps the MEA should have asked the government to legislate that maternity leave increases but is paid for at the lowest rate - ie minimum wage. .

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@socjalist88. There are several ways in which students can be self financing,not least in one where the State finances a student with a rock solid agreement that loans are paid back with interest once the student has graduated and goes into the World of work. Is it fair that we are asked to pay for an education, for the graduate to then go work outside the Country without ever having given anything back?. Neither should the State have to fork out taxpayers money on buying cars and financing student's very often extravagant lifestyles, a lifestyle which often can easily be financed by the student's parents if desired.

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Where were these MEA wankers when Dr Alfred Sant suggested to have said stipends revised and all hell broke lose? Of course sitting on the fence doing nothing except rubbing their hands in glee as their party was scoring political points.

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@ Moribund- How can students finance themselves when they can't even find a job? University courses in Malta are more demanding than those in some other EU countries, and finding a part-time job to fit around a deluge of lectures for some proves to be an impossible feat. Not all students' parents afford to support their children through tertiary education. This government was elected with the cry of 'education for all'. The removal of stipends for some (which is already meager) would be yet another unfulfilled promise.

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Those students who choose careers with the need of the State in mind(these may change from time to time), should be encouraged, always subject to a means test. Others who may choose to study something they may be happier with but not necessarily one which is in need with the Country should be prepared to finance themselves to the greater degree. Means tests should be introduced in these economically dire times.

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Those students who choose careers with the need of the State,which may change from time to time, should be encouraged,subject to a means test. Others who may choose to study something they may be more happy with but not necessarily one which is in need with the Country should be prepared to finance themselves to the greater degree. Means tests should be introduced in these economically dire times.