Despite a shared total of five dedicated communications coordinators between the Office of the Prime Minister and the Education Ministry, the government remains conspicuously silent about the glaring failures of the American University of Malta (AUM), preferring instead to wholeheartedly endorse a university whose students describe it as “a ghost town”.
The AUM, which is currently struggling to repay its creditors and justify its failure to publish audited accounts, got to welcome Prime Minister Robert Abela at a dinner event organised by the university earlier this week.
Though AUM made a point of sharing a photo of the Prime Minister’s attendance at the event, the Prime Minister’s social media team did not reciprocate.
The omission becomes more significant when considering the Prime Minister’s ongoing, heavily publicised tour of several educational institutions in the country. No official statements were issued by the Department of Information, either.
The Prime Minister’s visit to the AUM is particularly jarring given the university’s evident failure to fulfil the goals set out in the original concession agreement that it had signed with his disgraced predecessor, Joseph Muscat.
The government’s extensive goodwill towards the AUM, including through its decision to give away prime real estate in Smart City to a university with an insignificant student population at bargain bin prices, stands in stark contrast with its resolve to terminate unsuccessful public-private concessions such as the hospitals deal and MIDI’s concession in Manoel Island.
The Prime Minister, alongside Education Minister Clifton Grima, also refused to answer questions about whether the government has carried out any kind of additional scrutiny of the AUM’s operations beyond the legal bare minimum of a regular audit by the higher education regulator.
There also seems to be a lack of any kind of contingency plan for the possibility that the university continues to perform below expectations, including if and when the institution ceases to function.
The vacuum of information has troubled several AUM students who spoke to The Shift about the beleaguered university.
“They don’t really care about us as students. This month, they held a meeting with all of us to insist that their licence is valid and will be renewed. Nobody believes them,” one student told The Shift.
Another student echoed similar concerns, noting that several students are either considering a transfer or actively pursuing one.
“This university is dead; dead. It’s like walking into a ghost town. There is such a weird vibe there; there are no students. It was so confusing in the beginning,” the student noted.
“The meeting they had with us this month shows just how unprofessional they are. They are scared, and they treat us like the enemy. Because after all, if they are really confident about their licence credentials and the possibility of the school closing down, they wouldn’t be scared of what they describe as rumours,” the student added, labelling the AUM’s style of communication as “manipulative.”
In February, the university attempted to counter The Shift’s reporting on the decrepit state of its student hostel by publishing a curated video on its social media, an effort which was directly contradicted by internal chats seen by The Shift.
