In a report, published by the Education Commission, KSU came up with a number of proposals after consulting with the student body.

The report explains why student representation is of fundamental importance and urges the university to have student representatives on each board with an academic purpose. After all as the Berlin Communiqué of 2003 states “Students are full partners in higher education governance”. Some boards at University such as APQRU still have no student representative.

The commission also referred to the Students’ Charter as great tool which can be used to promote full cooperation so that the stakeholders of the University of Malta will keep striving to further improve the institution itself but more importantly the educational experience of its students. The students’ charter should not be observed at good will but should be implemented and enforced. As is the practice in other universities overseas, we propose that the Students’ Charter should offer an overview of the legal protection afforded to students, i.e. the opportunities available for the student to exercise the rights mentioned in the charter.

Very commonly in the literature and in University’s policy statements, reference is made to student centered learning, but this has not necessarily transferred into practice. KSU feels that this is in fact a problem which is also present in our University, at least in some circumstances. We encourage the University to keep on moving on the good track which is being adopted in new programmes of study and to further focus on learning outcomes/objectives, focusing on what the student will be able to do, rather than on the content being covered by the teacher by the end of the academic year. Therefore students will take full responsibility for their own learning.

Emphasis was also done on the importance and the necessity that the University scrutinises the needs of the knowledge based industry and prepares programmes, whilst also updating existing programmes to assure that our country will not lack any skills required for continuous development and competitivity.

As stated in the Communiqué of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Higher Education, held in Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve, in April 2009, mobility helps students develop the competences they need in a changing labour market and empowering them to become active and responsible citizens. For this reason we believe that mobility of students and academic staff should be a main priority of the University.

The library resources were also taken into consideration. KSU feels that all dissertations and other papers/reports published by the staff of the University should be readily available to all students and a copy of all dissertations should be kept at the Melitensia or in any other place (if there are space constraints) where they are readily available to all students. It is then the responsibility of the student to use these resources in the best manner.

The report which can be found in the resources section of this portal also stressed on the importance of private funding and the autonomy of the University.