Bureaucratic Processes at the University of Malta

I'm still debating whether to publish my opinions vis-a-vis this subject in the Times in the form of a letter; principally because I am somewhat fearful of obtaining some kind of negative 'label' from lecturers (despite my common name, and all) and hence influencing my exam grades in some manner. However, basically, the point behind this written below is a complaint about how long it takes for exam results to be published at University.

While I can understand that lecturers lead a busy life and that they tend to many students, I think that it is particularly shameful that a month has passed since our first January exam and no results have yet come out. The point behind this is that foreign counterparts at foreign Universities are given a specific timeframe in which to have the students' results at least preliminarily published, i.e. indicating what grading bracket the student would fall into, but in Malta, the truth is that students are faced with the opposite scenario altogether.

Us students have come to accept the fact that results do take a bit of time to come out, especially if there are many people sitting for a subject; and that as a general rule, one shouldn't expect anything to emerge within at least two and a half weeks from the date of the examination. However, I find it downright irresponsible and unprofessional on behalf of the lecturers who correct our papers - if they even do correct thoroughly, that is - that they continue to procrastinate accordingly, causing agony to the student, who would generally be keen to find out how he or she fared within the exam that he or she sat for. A pristine example is what happened to me last year, in a credit in which there were not more than 40 students sitting for final assessment. The lectures took place over a weekend in February, following which the lecturer had informed us that we would be given a 1,500 word assignment on the subject that was due for April 1. One would estimate that at most, the result would come out around a three weeks later - but no, the result actually came out in June 30, i.e. three full months after the due date. I don't know if there is a certain criteria preventing results from being published in the middle of a semester, but I find this shameful, to say the least.

As stated above, in almost all Universities abroad, lecturers are given a timeframe in which they must correct their students' exam papers and publish results, and, unpredictably, this is adhered to in practically all circumstances (barring exceptional ones). Here in Malta, last year, it was suggested that if six weeks (from the time of the examination) had passed whereby the result of a subject hadn't been received, we should send an email to the KSU Education Commission, who would then investigate the matter accordingly and get back to us after supposedly putting pressure on the lecturers to deliver the results. I have personally had mixed experiences with this system, because while I did get a prompt answer in relation to, if I remember correctly, my Family Law exam back in March 2009; I did not get any answer whatsoever from the Commission vis-a-vis Administrative Law exam in July 2009. Needless to say, the result for Administrative Law came out on July 23 - the exam was held on June 4. Therefore, seven weeks passed before we received any confirmation of our results. In itself, this also brings up a criticism of KSU, who, in defending the rights of the students, should have at least had the decency to answer my email accordingly, even if the answer that I would have received would have been something to the effect that they had no idea when the result would be coming out. Alas, perhaps a member of the Education Commission was on holiday at the time - or received her results already - and therefore the need to tend to my request was deemed unimportant.

To conclude with my arguments, here's my personal suggestion to lecturers. Last year, they had made a whole fuss because their collective agreement had expired and that their pay was measly. They justified this argument by stating that they should be receiving the same salaries as their European counterparts (for people who are meant to be pioneers in their field of research, I find this argument extremely flawed because none of the lecturers seemed to take into account that the cost and standard of living in Malta is lower than that in Europe - someone with even half a brain would had been able to successfully argue that). Well, following a lot of hassling, a new collective agreement was reached. However, if they really did want to be paid like their European counterparts, then why don't they start acting like their European counterparts too? This includes not skipping lectures without prior notice, using the proper media to deliver lectures, actually delivering lectures properly and not giving (sometimes) conflicting information, and, finally, correcting those wretched exam papers within a stipulated period of time and publishing the results as soon as possible! Until then, such lecturers should firmly put their money where their mouth is.

God Bless You all!
Matti