Students’ council want a say in next academic staff collective agreement

The University Students’ Council (KSU) have called for one of its council members to be involved in the next round of negotiations of the next Collective Agreement between the government, the University, the University of Malta Academic Staff Association (UMASA) and the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT).

KSU said that the allocation of a seat to a KSU member will “ensure that students are involved in the formation of their education policies and safeguard the students’ rights whenever they are hindered”.

KSU’s Education Office had sent in a number of proposals for the current Collective Agreement.

Student media organisation Insite revealed that these proposals included the raising of academic staff’s salaries to stop them from “looking for greener pastures in the private sector, the industry or in foreign universities”.

However, they also added that any “bettering of the academic’s financial remuneration must never be made at the students’ expense”. KSU also suggested that lecturers adopt new ‘visual media’ educational technologies and that the deadline for the submission of exam results be established according to each unit’s credit weighting.

KSU President Gayle Lynn Callus revealed that this latter proposal was rejected. 

KSU criticized the collective agreement for not taking the rights of students into account.

“Malta should aim to have more of a student-centred education system. KSU believes that the regulations and therefore even the Collective Agreement should not only consist of what is required from the student but also what the student should receive,” KSU said.

“ After all the student, besides being the main stakeholder in the system, is also the main client.”

Due to a disagreement on the financial package offered to academic staff in the most recent Collective Agreement, UMASA and MUT initiated industrial directives. These directives issued academics “to withhold all non-final year Undergraduate results at the University and the Junior College”.

On the 25 July, the unions and the government reached an understanding and these industrial directives were lifted.

KSU will be meeting Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this afternoon for a consultation meeting.