Malta Polytechnic Institute (now the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology) : report on project results

Abstract

This Project was initiated in 1961 as a result of a request made in 1960 by the Government of Malta to the then United Nations Special Fund for assistance in promoting engineering studies at various levels. The Request was approved by the Governing Council in May 1960, and the original Plan of Operation was signed on 22 March 1961, with Unesco designated as the Executing Agency, and the Department of Education as the Co-Operating Government Agency. The duration of the Project was to be for five years. An amended Plan of Operation, signed on 30 June 1965, was made necessary by initial delays in the implementation of the Project, which was subsequently extended to a total of eight years, to terminate August 1969. The project for a Malta Polytechnic Institute must be seen against the background of the island's recent constitutional, political, economic and social history. The idea of a Polytechnic was first mooted in the early 1950s. Since then Malta has achieved political independence-within the British Commonwealth, after a somewhat difficult period involving direct rule from the United Kingdom, partial self-government, finally formal independence in September, 1964, and subsequent development of the country since that time. During the period of the project the Maltese economy has been profoundly affected by the reduction of the British defence programme, the closing down of the naval base, and changes in the role of the dockyard. Efforts to diversify the national economy, principally through tourism and light industry, have borne fruit, and the resulting more hopeful economic climate has done much to reduce emigration and also to stimulate interest in technical education. It is thus hoped that one of the major difficulties experienced during the early years of the project, the lack of qualified applicants, will be resolved. In addition, improvements in secondary school education are also expected to affect favourably both the quantity and quality of student enrolment at the Polytechnic Institute.